The Bonds of Souls
by Humida
Summary: A continuation of love story following Clare's origins with her powers as Kaede's soul becomes trapped in the young Clare's body.
1. Flesh Brought Into Flesh

The Bonds of Souls

Flesh Brought Into Flesh

The mask lays on her face, keeping her breathing lightly as the knife slits her stomach opening her insides to the moist air. The doctors, men in black mask, stare at her without concern. Clare watches, her body numbed from the anesthetic, her skin chill from the cold air blowing from the open windows.

Her insides hurt, Oh God, why does it hurt so much? She can feel her flesh being pulled apart and she screams, her small eyes going wide.

"Does it really hurt so badly, girl?" a man with a dark rimmed hat asks. He smiles behind his black rimmed glasses. That smile matches the cold atmosphere, without warmth of any kind. "What did you really expect to find when coming here?" he asks. "A fairy tale story? Life is hardly ever so kind."

With these words he turns on his heels and walks out the door, leaving Clare to the surgeons. Rubel. That's what they called him, wasn't it? Did it matter? Oh God. What are they sticking inside? It feels cold and slimy. Is that Teresa's flesh? She didn't imagine it would be...

"Yeeaaaagggghhhh!" she screams despite herself. The blood, something in it stretches into her body twisting and pulling, and she can feel... feel it attacking itself. Fighting. This is... Teresa's blood.

A memory... a young man with dark hair parted in the center, skin nearly as pale as Teresa's with a narrow chin and sad eyes.

"Kaede..." she whispers. Yes, his blood had become mixed with hers, hadn't it. Teresa of the faint smile, a woman who had been a powerful claymore, killed by another who had turned into a monster. That monster had also taken Kaede away. The monster with purple skin, a single horn protruding from her forehead, dull yellow eyes, vacant except for her hunger.

The young man in her memory smiles, his eyes taking a warm glow. Clare smiles back despite herself. It felt good to see him again, even if she knows he will soon disappear.

The image fades, replaced by a white dragon with a rounded face. This one makes Clare's heart thunder inside her chest.

"Her breathing has become more severe," a voice above her says.

They push open the lids of one of her eyes staring into it with a dull fire.

"Her eyes have dilated."

"Doesn't matter. Many don't survive. She'll just be another casualty."

"Casualty? She didn't like the sounds of..."

"Child," a strong feminine voice sounds. It seems it comes from the dragon's form. "Child, I welcome you into the fold. Welcome to Andromodea."

The white dragon spreads her wings stretching her long neck up to the ceiling, her form blocking out the moonlight. Can't they see her? Don't they feel her? she ask herself inwardly. But inside she knows this is all happening in her mind. Somewhere the adults can't see.

The dragon burst into a cloudy mist flowing into her body. Clare screams, arching her back as she feels the flesh placed inside her twist and wrap suddenly expanding within her, spreading like vipers in her blood.

"Hold her down!" a voice yells.

"What's happening to her!"

"Dragon..." she whispers.

"What?"

"We're losing her!"

Someone slams their open palms against her chest, beating frantically against it. A thud against her ribs. She doesn't seem to see, barely hears, her heart speeding within her and rapidly... slowing down.

The boy again, Kaede. His face masked in shadow, his lips twist into a soft smile, his eyes glowing a soft blue. He extends his hand towards her, palm open.

"Clare..." he whispers. "Wake up. Wake up!"

Her eyes blink open, quivering in their sockets. A man with a black hat looks down at her from behind dark glasses. Rubel.

"I thought you wouldn't survive. But you're not through the woods yet. It's only your first trial, and we almost lost you on the operating table. Almost. Perhaps it would have been fortunate if we had lost you there. Perhaps."

She stares at the young man, his shadow looking at her with a tilt to his head.

"Ka.. E.. De..." she whispers.

The young man smiles.

"Are you even listening, child?" Rubel asks.

The young man reaches over towards her stroking her hair.

"You're safe now. Don't worry, it will only hurt for a little while longer."

"Kaede..." she whispers again, shutting her eyes. She feels a light kiss on her forehead and her mind drifts. The pain she feels running through her veins stings, but it is much lighter then before. If Kaede said it will be okay then she trust him.

Her mind goes back to a time when he had been there, screaming at the death of Teresa, holding her decapitated head against his chest. He had screamed and attacked the purple demon, and then part of his stomach had disappeared, and when he did not fall his head followed suite.

"Kaede..." she whispers, a tear rolling down her cheek. "Why did you have to die?"

Rubel stares with narrowed eyes at the young girl sleeping restlessly against her cot. She is crying, crying for that young man he had heard about. Kaede, was it? What a foolish creature to have gotten himself involved with a claymore, even if it was Teresa of the faint smile.

His smile wavers as he observes the girl. Does the wind normally blow hair like that? There is something disturbing about that movement. Like a... ghost?

Don't be silly, he thinks. The only monsters here are ones like myself, no matter what the organization says, we are the true monsters here.

He tilts the rim of his hat a smile spreading across his lips. "And people like you are our pawns child. Our tools for the war."

The girl rest silently, the wind stirring her hair in that unsettling way. His smile falters and he turns on his heels walking out of the dark chambers ignoring the shiver running down his back, the shiver of someone or something... watching him.


	2. An Emerging Cold

AN EMERGING COLD

The shadows before her dance in the darkness. A woman who she had barely gotten to know, with her of silver flowing down her back, her silver eyes baring a loneliness she had tried to remove, and another, with the same eyes reflected in blue. A sad young man. Both forms seem to move in fluidity, touching and sliding over one another, their forms seeming to snake into one another, merging... why? Why were they?...

A drop of liquid splashes against the cold floor echoing against her ears. Clare opens her eyes and watches. Watches the puddle in her cold room with the straw spread out. The liquid seems alive, an individual body in that cave. She can hear the water condensing, and turns her eyes to an old pipe in the ceiling where a drop of water forms and watches its body build, the form becoming too heavy to be held until it comes thundering down towards the puddle, the sound reverberating against her ears.

There is a scratching noise thirty feet to her right. A small animal clawing at the floor, squeaking. A rat. There were rats here!

She gets up suddenly dodging backwards, shoving herself against the brick wall. Rats. Why were there...

She can see it, but it seems odd. Each move as if it were going in slow motion. The creature sniffing the air quizzically, lifting itself on its hind feet. But it's more then the sounds and how it seems slow. She can smell it too. Smell how it had gone through old bread and cheese, smell the blood from a wound on its foot where a finger had been separated by a trap. See the welt of blood like a glowing fluid, that fluid moving through its body. She can see... inside?

She watches curiously. The small animal's heart pumping, muscles twisting. Then she turns.

Other moans. Much louder then the rat. Stronger still. She walks forward and the rat disappears to the left, running down an open drain system against the edge of the wall. Curious. She can still see it even though her eyes can't follow. It's as if she can smell the water. Sense its movement in the blood of the rat.

Her heart beats furiously. A groan and then a scuffling. Someone at the other side of the wall. She presses her hands against the wall, pressing her ear against it. Yes, she can hear them. Moving legs and arms, the joints squeaking and crunching. The flesh making watery noises. She pulls her ear away staring at the wall and leaps back. She can see the girl laying on her cot. But she can't. It is a shimmering form. So odd.

The girl jerks up at the sounds of loud boots echoing through the hall. Clare looks around and finally ducks back into the shadows. They stop at the girl's cell, one man barking orders. She stands up and the cell is unlocked. Clare watches then gasp when something bangs against her cell.

She thuds against the back wall then slowly lifts her head. It is the man in black with the hat and shades. Rubel. He stares at her position with an odd look then turns looking over the rest of the cell.

"Strange. I swore the child was here yesterday. Could she have gotten out?"

He couldn't see her? That was odd. His heart is beating rapidly. Fear? His smell seems to be getting stronger, then it suddenly calms.

"So there you are. Why don't you come out of the shadows so I can look at you?"

So he'd finally seen her. She steps forward timidly, tilting her head, looking at the man. He was so... interesting. Not like normal. She can follow every contour, every move of flesh. So odd. He is smiling then that smile falters.

"That's odd. Your eyes, they aren't silver. No. That is not accurate. They are silver, but there is a strong edge of blue in them. Is there more of the yoma's blood in you then we would have thought?"

Yoma blood? What was he going on about?

The second man appears next to Rubel, one held in thick robes up to his balding skull. Sunken cheeks and eyes with thick, dirty lips. The one who had been there at Teresa's death. A growl seems to escape her throat, one like an angry dog. Orsay jumps and Rubel's heart skips a beat, a frown replacing his smile.

"That child," he says. "There is something different about her, wouldn't you say?"

"Yes, like yoma. But her eyes are the wrong color, blue instead of silver. Like that..."

"Like the young man she was said to be with?" Rubel finishes. Orsay stares back with a scowl, but Rubel remains calm, no, his heart is beating faster, excitement filling him. He smells excited. The discomfort of the other, this is what does it.

Rubel turns and places a key through the slot. Clare can hear it loudly, hear each thunk and clank of movement. So slow and noisy. The door squeals open and in steps Rubel.

"Come now," he says, motioning towards her with an open palm. "Let's have a look at you."

Feeling she has little choice she steps out of the shadows, moving towards Rubel. The man's frown intensifies. Why?

He lunges, gripping a handful of her hair. He turns it in his fingers and looks at it. The color is still the same shade of deep auburn she typically has.

"Strange, isn't it?" Rubel says. "Her hair is still the same color."

"Yes," Orsay says, stepping into the cell. "It hasn't changed color. Strange, for a claymore. Perhaps the experiment was a failure?"

"I don't know," Rubel says placing a hand against her cheek. She stares back, anger filling her. Failure? If she was a failure how could she avenge Teresa? Kaede? How could she kill the monster that killed them? How could...

"Aaaahhh!" Rubel cries out jerking his hand back.

"What is it?" Orsay asks, fear filling his voice. The sound seems old and cracked to her ears.

Rubel shakes his hand, staring at it. He cracks his fist and it crackles, crunching with tingles of shiny glass. Why did..

He turns his hand and blue flecks fall to the floor.

"I don't know what happened," he says. "But this girl certainly is different. Pieces of my glove have frozen."

"Frozen?" Orsay asks raising an eyebrow.

"Yes. It seems this girl may have taken blood from the boy instead of Teresa. Strange. Are we certain it is Teresa's flesh that is inside the girl and not the boy's."

"Of course!" Orsay says seeming flabbergasted. "We would never place such an unknown substance. The goal was to keep Teresa's power alive in the girl."

"But wasn't Teresa's head covered in that boy's blood?"

The old man's eyes widen in shock. He turns from Rubel to her, eyes filled with fear.

"It would seem that the boy's blood may be more infectious then a yoma's." He lifts his hand to his glasses, tipping them up then stares once more at his glove. "Perhaps. But we've never known how effective the transfer of another warrior's blood would be, after all. Perhaps this is nothing more then a fluke and a claymore may not be transferred to a claymore."

"Perhaps. But this..."

"Yes. I know. It's something else."

He leans towards her, then thinks better of it pulling back his hand. He places his hand behind his back a frown on his lips.

"This is unnatural. A unique chance we have been given. Some, otherworldly power. We must handle it with caution. Do otherwise would be..." He stares at his gloved hand, turning it about. "Unwise."

He walks out of the cell, Orsay hurrying after. Rubel stops for a time, his heart thundering inside him.

"We'll meet again child. I suppose we can give you this day to ... adjust... to your new being."

Orsay shuts the door, taking the keys from Rubel. Fumbling hands shake dropping the metal keys. Clare steps forward looking at him. He lifts himself, gasp and kicks the door. She quickly moves back, her inner instinct to protect herself. The old man is quickly shoving the keys into the lock, shaking and jangling them violently. Was she so different?

The door finally locks in place. Clare walks forward and the old man quickly dodges back out of sight. Only Rubel holds his ground. Strange. They felt like lower life forms. Less then her. No. That is how yoma think!

She holds her head, crying inwardly and slams her small fist into the water. It crashes, splintering in a shower of icicles. She stares wide eyed. The puddle of water no longer moved, but stood, frozen in small chunks scattered across the floor. She stares at her hands, shaking and trembling, some kind of silvery smoke coming from them. She holds her knees sobbing. What is she? If she isn't a claymore, then what is she?

Outside the cell another figure stares with narrowed eyes, a pain in his own heart. Things can only get harder for her, and with no one to train her how is she to truly survive? The figure shakes his head, his dark hair falling over his face and turns, phasing through the wall in an effort to be away with his own thoughts.


	3. The Choices of Gods

A Choice of Gods

It is cold here, she thinks. The winds buffet the mountainside, few plants growing on the nude cliffs. At its center at the head of the mountain Clare see a thick pool of water. She walks over to the pool, starving for the taste of the water. In these mountains, white with frost she bends down cupping water in her hands and splashes it against her face. Not feeling satiated she bends down drinking the water with her lips. She keeps slurping, eyes shut, feeling the great joy of drinking the fluid when she feels someone or something watching her.

She opens her eyes slowly and sees a reptile's blue eyes reflected in the water.

Her eyes bulge and she quickly pulls back, fear filling her. A monster in the water? But as she pulls back she notices the animal pull back as well. She stares, lifting her hand to her face and notices the white reptile below the water do the same. When she gasp so does it. She cups her mouth, covering the scream, and so does the animal, covering its long snout with taloned hands.

Pulling her hands away from her face she stares at them. Hands with wickedly curved black nails, scaled in white flecks with thick armor on the upper sections of the arm.

"What?" she asks. "What am I?"

"The Savarnson." she hears the wind whisper.

"What?"

"The Savarnson, the first Eve of this world."

She turns her head looking towards the sky, the blue eyes of the rounded face of a white dragon stare back at her from the plumes of clouds.

"You are the first Eve," it whispers once more.

She looks away suddenly, a pain in her gut grasping her attention. She holds her stomach, feeling it wet, a warmth flowing out of her. She lifts her hands away staring at the red markings of blood.

"What? What is.."

She keels over once more, the pain wracking her stomach.

Her eyes bulge open, staring into the daylight at the naked feet of several other girls, staring down at her with pity or contempt in their faces. And she feels another boot ram into her stomach.

"You weak... pathetic... brute!" yells the handler. "You're not worth the effort we've put into you! You're..."

Something wakens in her system, a reptile snarling at being attacked. The reptile in her roars and she turns before realizing what she is doing, grabbing the handler's left leg, opening her mouth and sinking her teeth into his bony appendage. She feels his old flesh give way, the blood flow over her lips into her mouth. A taste that is sweet like water and her mouth squeezes harder.

"Yeeeaaagghhh!" the handler screams. He tries kicking at her stomach to dislodge her, a constant thud against her stomach, but it has little effect. When he begins screaming the trainees come to his aid, trying to dislodge Clare. She holds on, teeth wrapped around bone, digging into it. It takes a large trainee with her wooden sword jabbed into Clare's eyes to get her to let go, and only with a horrid snarl. She kicks and snaps forcing three of them to hold her. Only when the others force her face against the ground does she calm enough to understand what is happening, what she tried to do. She lets the tears fall form her eyes not understanding what is happening. Not wanting it to happen.

The slap across her face stifles her tears.

"You'll have a lot more to cry about when I get through with you, wench! Look what you did to my leg!"

He points at his torn boot, blood still seeping from the wounds. She grits her teeth, growling, feeling the bloods mixed within her snarling. Two reptiles staring at an enemy. Both her yoma side and the reptile strike snapping teeth just in front of the handler's boot. He kicks her in the face but falls back with the move, holding the leg. The others stare in disbelief as chips of flesh frozen like ice fall away from the handler's wound. He screams his profanities, tears welling in his eyes. The monsters within her fight, snarling and screaming making her thrash against the floor.

"Stop it, Clare!" a voice barely a whisper against her ear says. One from long ago. One long dead.

"Teresa?" she whispers, tears welling in her eyes her body calming.

The handler takes his whip, lifting it in the air in his sitting position.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a calm voice chides.

All turn towards the man in a dark hat, his smile a sickly thing on hairless face.

"If you provoke her there's no telling what she will do."

"Look at what she did to my leg!" the handler yells.

"I know. Perhaps that is a lesson to you not to kick an animal when she is down. Especially one you don't understand."

An animal? Is that what she is? Perhaps it is true then. She falls limp in the arms of trainees tears brimming around her eyes.

"Do not cry girl," Rubel's voice sounds. She lifts trembling eyes to his face with its cruel smile.

"After all, there is no reason to cry when the punishment has not been met out."

He turns from her to the others.

"You three. Take her to the barracks. Twenty lashes should suffice for the time being."

The others nod and drag her away. She has no heart to resist. What if he was right? What if she was an animal?

"What have I done? What have I done?" he whispers over and over again. Clare. Clare was hurt because of him, no, he didn't do it. But it's his blood in her, right? Why? Why? He shakes his head, gritting his teeth, holding it in his hands.

"No. No. This isn't right. Why is this happening?"

He rocks back and forth on the log, feeling the mud beneath his boots. The moist air and vibrant scent of the trees should relieve him, but since his blood was in her he'd had no true moments of peace. Worse were "her" eyes. Her words. And she'd find him almost as easily as he'd always found her. She could read his "yoki" now, whatever he had.

He hears her tread against the earth, her boots clapping against their metal casings and buries his head in his arms. She stands over him with an air of authority and disdain in her scent.

"What are you going to do about this?"

"Leave me alone."

"Leave you alone?"

She grabs the color of his shirt, ripping him off the floor, holding him aloft next to her. He looks away from her but can see the anger in her silver eyes, her mouth in a snarl, long hair flowing like gold.

"Leave you alone! What is wrong with you? Clare is in trouble and you..."

"I know."

"Really? Because whatever blood you have in you is..."

"I know! I know!" he says turning towards her. "I know! You've said it over and over again! I never should have come here. Never should have been. But I am. I did and you and I are dead and I have no clue what's wrong with her. I don't know what's wrong..."

He pushes away and sits back on the log, sobbing.

"You're pathetic. This won't solve anything."

"Right and what are you going to do Teresa?"

She stares and turns away looking at the floor.

"Right. If you haven't noticed we're kind of dead. We aren't part of the living. It's kind of hard to do something for those who live when you and I are dead!"

She grits her teeth and turns away. She says not a word but simply fades, her distance fading from his mind very quickly, but always there, at the edge. He looks up towards the river before him, its banks flowing over, almost touching the ends of his boots. From beneath his matt of hair he watches it, trying to calm himself.

"What should I do? What can I do?"

"Lift your head Kaede Yukimura," a deep feminine voice sounds from his right. He bolts upright, staring into the eyes of the dragoness Andromodea. The white dragon with eyes of blue. "I have need of you Yukimura," she says.

"What can I do?" he whispers.

"The Savarnson is in need of training, training not offered by another. You are the only Andromodean to have passed these shores and the time for the others is not yet nigh. The Savarnson must set their way. She must be trained and she more importantly, must survive. As she is her life shall soon be taken from her."

He turns away looking at the sky.

"And what can I do about that? I'm dead."

"Kaede," she whispers. He turns his head to look into her eyes, their deep orbs penetrating the core of his being.

"I am a Goddess. What is dead and what is alive is not a thing beyond me."

He nods.

"Yes mistress. I am sorry. I am just..."

"Worried. Yes. I know."

He smiles, bitter tears in his eyes.

"Go to her Yukimura. You shall know what must be done when you arrive."

He nods, his own form disappearing. The last he sees is the smile on her reptilian lips, a curve of the gums baring her teeth and shine to her blue orbs.

"It will be well Yukimura. It will be well."

Teresa stares at the center for the trainees' camp, looking specifically towards the barracks where she can see Clare held by twin chains, her back wet with the blood from her lashes. She shakes her head. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. What could she do for Clare when she herself was in the land of the dead?

"Nothing. Nothing at all," she whispers.

The wind stirs from the mountains and Teresa turns. The wind howls from blue skies, the branches of the pines stirring with movement. And she feels him, feels him in the back of her mind. Kaede moving quickly towards her location.

"Kaede?" she whispers.

His form appears before her and in a stride is moving through her and past her, towards Clare. She turns towards him.

"Kaede, what are you..."

"Teresa of the faint smile," a strong voice sounds from behind her.

She draws her blade turning towards the sound of that voice. Her eyes flicker for a moment with recognition.

"You."

The dragoness nods, her neck twisting her head to the side.

"Teresa, I would have words with you."

She nods and waits, listening to what the dragoness has to say. And she grits her teeth. She isn't liking this at all. Not liking it one bit. When the dragoness reaches her point of using Kaede Teresa turns.

"No. That..."

But as she turns to move towards Clare she can already see Kaede's form being absorbed by her breath. She drops her blade and mutters a curse. She is already too late.


	4. Trapped in One Body

TRAPPED IN ONE BODY

She feels herself on the floor, the mud cold to the touch. Feels the blood on her back cooling, flowing out of her body, ebbing away. The water on the floor freezes with her movements, turning into solid ice. Clare drags herself across the dark floor, her strength feeling sapped.

Is this what it is like to be like Teresa? No. Why is she this weak? Why is she...

A dragon's blue eyes glow in the darkness of her mind taking a gasp from her breath and when she sees again there is the young man with dark hair tied in a tail. He smiles softly and extends his hand to her.

"Here Clare, let me lift some of your burden."

"Ka- e - de..." she whispers, extending her own small hand towards him.

When her fingers touch with his she feels a tingle of energy, a flow of one into the other. He smiles and takes her hand, gripping her arm and lifting her over his shoulders.

"Rest now," he says. "I need to take over for a moment."

"Yes," she whispers against his ear, her mind drifting in sleep and relaxation.

He smiles and his hands clap together with an echo in the still night.

He wakens with a gasp suddenly feeling the searing pain of the hot wounds on his back. No, not his he thinks, gritting his teeth, "hers." Clare's. He'd forgotten what it felt like to be alive and feel suffering from the body.

He squints with groggy eyes, barely able to suppress his own tears, barely holding back the scream that wishes to escape his lips. Goddess, is this what he left Clare to? An emptiness with constant beatings?

He snaps at the air, curling his small fist. No. It doesn't matter. Priorities. He shuts his eyes, thinking back on the priorities at hand.

"First thing is first," he whispers. "I need to get us out of here."

"And how are you going to do that?" a harsh voice ask.

He turns with wide eyes, heart thundering loudly. He turns wildly looking for the sound straining against the chains holding his arms extended towards the ceiling.

"What are you looking for?" Teresa asks.

"That loud thumping. Don't you hear it?"

She feels his chest, a warm hand against a frail form and he calms.

"I think that's Clare's heart," she whispers.

His eyes widen then shrink and he begins to relax, his heart slowing to a more normal rate. So many things he'd forgotten of being mortal. He laughs softly to himself. So much forgotten. So much needing to be relearned.

But first thing first. He flexes his right wrist, looking up at it. In this dark place with night cooling the grounds outside, that cold air drifts inward, embracing everything, making the shackle an element of living ice. Ice, that as Kaede had noticed, is Clare's ability. Different from his own but so very similar.

He rubs his wrist, no, Clare's wrist, against the sides of the shackle trying to draw in the cold from the air. A light frost builds on the shackle, but nothing more. No, he'd need a more direct approach, and the mud at their feet offers little moisture to be able to draw up. The only thing he can...

"Kaede."

That's right. He'll need to use the blood.

"Kaede!" Teresa yells.

"What is it?" he asks.

"I need to talk to you. Outside of Clare. Alone," she says motioning towards the right wall, or probably to the outside walls if he isn't mistaken.

"I can't," he says. "I need to get these shackles off."

"No," she says gripping his face. Her hands nearly cover the expanse of his face, so small inside this girl's body. Teresa's eyes are deep and penetrating, looking into his own.

"I need to talk to you now. Outside of Clare's body."

He shuts his eyes and sighs. Yes. Maybe she is right. This is a mistake. Clare should take responsibility for her own life and choices. What is he doing here? The Savarnson? Right. The gods would find a way to protect her if they needed her.

He squints his eyes sucking in a breath of air and tries to press himself out through Clare's nostrils and mouth. The same way he'd gotten in. But as much as he tries he can not flow back out of her body. He begins shaking the shackles getting frustrated.

"What are you doing?" Teresa ask. "Stop trying to delay this and get out of her body."

He shakes the shackles once more feeling himself, but not able to free himself.

"I can't," he shouts.

"What?"

"I can't!"

"What do you mean you can't?"

"There's something pressing against this body. Something holding me in."

"Look Kaede, if you don't get out of her body I'm leaving you. Understand? I won't allow you to see me again."

He shuts his eyes, trying to calm himself down, the frantic beat of his heart frightening him. Relax, he thinks. Relax. I can do this. I can do this. Just calm down and flow back out. Just relax and flow...

But as he tries he realizes he can not. There is no movement of his soul as free flowing matter any longer. Because it is not free.

"Dragon's hide," he growls shaking the shackles violently feeling the wounds at his back beginning to open up. He struggles against the bindings again, feeling the blood flowing down his back trying to rip them out, no, trying to rip himself out. The shackles clank and creak, straining against their hangings on the ceiling.

He stops struggling, the pain racing through his body. No. Clare's body. But his all the same now that he can feel the pain and its every movement.

"Hell," he whispers and lets his head fall limp.

"Kaede, get out of Clare's body. Now."

"I can't," he whispers solemnly.

"What?" Teresa ask with a darker voice. "Do you want me to leave?"

"Do you think I want to be abandoned again?" he snaps, tears flowing down his eyes. He stares at her, his eyes becoming tear filled. He lets his head fall forwards the cool tears flowing down his cheeks.

"I can't," he whispers. "I can't."

He hears a thud. Teresa is angry. He doesn't look up fearing her departure but he can hear her moving about, back and forth in the room.

"Damn it," she whispers. "Damn it."

"Teresa?" he whispers, lifting his head.

She turns to him with a stern look on her face.

"What the hell are you going to do now?"

"I... I..."

"Teresa!"

She shakes her head, holding it in her hand.

"Yes, Kaede. I'm not leaving. You don't have to scream like that."

"Teresa!" the voice screams from his lips again. He feels himself confused then realizes the pull within him, something else seeming to occupy the same space.

"Kaede, quit it," Teresa says. "I already told you, I'm not leaving."

His eyes narrow.

"That wasn't me," he says.

"What do you mean..." she asks.

"Teresa! You're alive! You're alive!" the voice screams, her emotions flooding over him, washing over him like a tidal wave. Teresa's eyes widen with recognition.

"It's Clare," he whispers. "She's still inside too."

It's Teresa, her flowing blonde hair and those silver eyes. They are different now, not the same loneliness there as before. But..

"Clare," a voice whispers much like her own.

"Teresa! Why did you leave me? Why did you and Kaede leave?"

Teresa shakes her head sadly.

"It's not something I chose Clare. If I could have changed it I would have tried to live for you."

"Clare?" a voice repeats.

She is shaking, she doesn't understand this. If she could have chosen? But she's here now!

"Why didn't you come back for me then? Why did you leave me alone! And where's Kaede!"

"I'm right here, Clare."

The same voice, but coming from her own body with her voice.

"Kaede?" she asks.

He nods, with her head.

"That's right. I'm inside your body."

"So you're really dead?"

"Yes."

"And Teresa?"

She turns towards the woman and the woman turns away briefly. Clare's eyes fill with tears. But she can see it now, or thinks she does. A wispiness to the woman. And more... she can't feel or see the flow of water.

Teresa is distorting the presence of items, moving them. But her energy does not flow with water.

She lets her head fall away. Teresa really is dead too.

"Clare?" Teresa whispers.

She ignores the woman. It doesn't matter. Both are gone. She doesn't understand why she can see Teresa right now or why Kaede is in...

And she screams. Teresa runs up to her, her eyes wide.

"Clare? What is it? What's wrong?"

"It hurts, Teresa. It hurts."

"What hurts?" she asks, nearing Clare.

"Clare," her own voice says.

"Kaede?"

"This is going to hurt a bit. I'm going to need you to concentrate."

"Kaede?" Teresa asks. "What the hell are you doing? Don't hurt Clare."

"Anything that happens to Clare happens to me too. Clare, just concentrate. Focus on the energy of your own body. I'll get us out of this."

"Kaede. Kaede. Stop it. The guards will come in and remove the shackles soon enough. There's no need to put Clare through this."

"Yes there is."

"What?"

"She's not going to have mercy on the field. She needs to know how to handle the situation or she'll end up like us."

"Kaede, this is selfish and stupid. Kaede?"

Clare thinks on this, feeling her eyes shut. Does she want to die like them? No. Does it matter? No. She thinks on the one horned monster, her dark eyes glowing yellow with that sick smile as she licked off Kaede's stomach from her lips. No. It does not matter if she dies, as long as she becomes strong enough to kill her.

"Those are bad thoughts Clare," she hears her own voice say. "Your life matters to us. Don't waste it."

"Kaede?"

"Don't worry. I'll teach you to become strong. This is earlier then I wanted but I suppose there's no choice. Try and be quiet and concentrate. This will hurt."

She hadn't realized Kaede could see her thoughts, hear them. But it doesn't matter. He says he'll teach her. And that's all that matters.

"Okay Kaede. I'll try."

"Clare?" Teresa asks. "Clare?"

Clare ignores her as she feels Kaede's energies flowing through her body, touching the ground, feels her toes trying to suck up water from the floor and feels her back... opening up. Blood flowing.. Not down, but flowing upwards, towards her arms. She throws her head back gritting her teeth. It hurts. It hurts so much.

She finds herself staring at her right arm, the blood flowing towards the shackle, wrapping around it, covering it, and she finds herself shutting her eyes and being able to see that shackle in her mind now. Slowly she concentrates on that blood, the warmth of it rapidly cooling and going to an even deeper cool. The shackle begins to freeze, the blood covering it cracking as it turns to ice.

Clare grits her teeth feeling the pain of it when there is a crunch followed by a snap.

At first she thinks its her arm, but as her arm swings next to her side limply, the shackle still crackling with the frost, she realizes the crack was from the chain links freezing and no longer able to support her weight.

"Kaede," Teresa growls. "What the hell? That's torture to Clare! Kaede?"

"Next one," he whispers.

"Okay," she says.

"No. Not okay," Teresa says. "You're going to stop this now. Both of you. Are you listening?"

Clare turns her head, concentrating on the blood going up her arm. It hurts, but not terribly as before. The blood flows freshly, running up her arm over the shackle. It strains her, but she is able to pull it forward, have it wrap around the shackle. All this while Teresa is yelling at them both. Clare wishes she'd just be quiet. This still hurts. She grits her teeth trying to keep from screaming.

Kaede keeps her eyes open, watching and concentrating on the blood flowing around the shackle until the metal binding is covered in blood and then the process of cooling begins. It is faster now. She understands what is happening and is able to make the flow move more quickly. She feels Kaede release his presence over the blood allowing her full control. The energy seems to explode against her vision and she wraps it like a tail, pulling it tightly around the binding, twisting and crunching until the shackle becomes so fragile the binding snaps and she slumps to the floor.

"Haha," she hears Kaede snicker. "First lesson. Felt like hell, didn't it?"

She nods and crawls towards the edge of the room, towards the shadows where it is cooler and leans her head back, sighing. Teresa stares at them, standing over them with an angry glare. Doesn't she understand? Doesn't she...Clare shuts her eyes feeling exhausted. She just... she just wants to sleep. Just...

The door opens squealing, the man with dark glasses looking in on her.

Rubel.

He stands outside the room, looking in, letting his presence make itself known. He stares at the girl, who glowers with blue eyes burning. He smiles.

"I heard screaming and came to investigate. Did something happen?"

The girl snarls. Of course he knows what happened. She pulled on the restraints and tore them off. It happened on occasion with claymores, though not generally with ones as weak as this one. Why did...

His smile falters. There is something odd about the chains. Both of them broken at the same point, not torn from the ceiling. The chains hang limply swinging back and forth with the breath of wind, water dripping on the floor. Water? Why is water...

There is a loud crackling sound coming from further back. Rubel lifts his head to look at the girl. There is another loud crack and the girl is slipping something off her wrist. What can it be? She tosses it at his feet, the item splitting in half with the impact.

He gasp but pulls himself back. No. No sense alerting the girl to his concerns. The item is obviously the manacle that had held her up. Apparently in her exasperation she'd frozen it. He nudges it with his boot and pulls away. The manacle is frozen solid and feels very, very cold.

There is more cracking and he finds the second manacle bouncing off the first and crashing into the wall, shattering. The first seems to have broken down further. A curious power. A dangerous ability, and within the grasp of the organization...

His smile falters. He shuts the door behind him, holding the handle for a time.

He laughs softly. Letting a child get to him? How foolish. Still, he'd need to eliminate her. A power like this? It is best if it is out of the organization's grasp.

He smiles, a tip of his hat as if bowing to the girl inside and strolls off thinking out the best way to set up "the accident."


	5. Hunting Monsters

HUNTING MONSTERS

Well, Rubel thinks. It's time I should go check on that girl. And perhaps we can finish with this nuisance.

He rubs the peach he holds at his back. Perhaps such a method is a little crude and cliche, but it does seem to work. Why work on something that doesn't need fixing? He tilts his hat and smiles heading towards the cell where the child is supposed to be held.

His smile falters, the fruit dropping from his hand, rolling across the floor. He sighs smiling softly in the dim glow of the early morning light.

The cell door swings softly and bangs against the door rims with a clatter. The lock seems to be a broken mess of metal and ice.

"Well, well," he mutters. "Aren't you a clever little girl? But where are you going now that you're out?"

He smiles and tips his hat once more. Why fix a problem that is going to fix itself? The girl is going to wind up getting herself killed by her own actions. He turns on his heel whistling a tune.

They slide across the dusty cliffs, her hair flowing back behind her. He stares through her eyes, sniffing the air. The wind is cool on his back, the wounds stinging slightly, blood marring the white suit an unsightly purple. But that scent is now logged into his nose. He quickly separates it from others.

"What are you doing, Kaede?" Clare ask.

"Yes, what are you doing?" Teresa ask. "You know she'll be flogged again when you take her back?"

His stomach, Clare's, rumbles loudly. He feels her wince, the pangs of hunger eating at her and he is licking his upper lip. And both the yoma side and dragon side within are snarling for food. Both with a similar taste, something warm and red.

"That give you an answer? Hunting. Clare, I know you're hungry. But pay attention."

"Alright Kaede."

She's using the same lips he's using. This isn't good. Too much of this and people will think they are insane. Course something similar would have been said on his own world. Seeing the dead and talking to them is taboo. What are the gods thinking?

He sighs, but catches something on the air. A good number of young claymore not many years older then she. And something else.. More distant. Something reptilian. Strongly so. Yoma.

An old smell he remembers remotely, but he's certain of it.

"Where are we going?" Clare ask.

"Towards food."

"Kaede," Teresa ask. "The organization gives you food. There's no reason to sneak out when they give you food."

His, Clare's stomach growls. He holds it, wincing. Both their hungers and those of the monsters inside just make the feeling worse. He turns towards Teresa with a glower.

"Not enough. They give enough for a claymore, but Clare isn't a claymore alone. She'll starve to death unless she finds out how to get her own food."

Teresa stares with a pout but relents.

"So what are you looking for? The fruit orchards?"

"No," he says shaking his head. "Live meat."

"What kind of meat?"

"You'll see." And he turns away running towards the group of trainees with a scared Clare in the back of his mind and an angry Teresa at his back.

Helen stretches her arms, her short blonde hair blowing sharply in the wind. She sighs. Their trainer, a dude with an eyepatch, is truly boring her. He's talking about their next mission but she really doesn't care. Something about a real mission where there might be a yoma. Yeah, isn't that why they're all out here training? Seriously.

She takes a bite out of her apple crunching it soundly. Then it hits her, something rank and foul. She spits the apple bit out, staring at it. No, it's not the apple. So what...

She turns and sees the girl clearing the crest of the hill. Someone dressed in a claymore outfit that is shredded at the back. Her back looks a mess, all purple with several slash marks and her arms are covered in the same color. Disgusting.

A runaway from the looks of it. And that hair... could she really be the rumored girl with strange powers? The weak one? She's whispering softly, her lips moving and she keeps turning as if listening to something. The other girls have turned to look at her too.

The girl turns a moment, looks at them all, then turns away and runs down the hill towards the empty city.

"Hey, where are you going?" their trainer cries. But the girl isn't listening.

"I'll get her!" Helen says without giving it a second thought and races down the hill.

"Be quick about it," her trainer says. "No one else follow," she hears him say, but then she's out of earshot. And the girl is racing towards the town.

"Hey! Wait up!" Helen yells.

The girl turns for a moment, her eyes shining a clear blue and disappears around a bend.

"Hell!" Helen growls and continues to call out for the girl chasing her into the ruins.

Helen looks around, gritting her teeth. The girl is sure being a pain. Despite her stinking up the whole place she's managed to disappear in this godforsaken place. She scratches her head searching the deserted village, all the buildings torn with broken dirty windows, sand blowing across the paved floor, buildings crumbling with the blowing of wind.

She walks slowly feeling a shiver run up her spine. It's probably nothing she thinks, just the wind. She cups her mouth and hollers.

"Hey Kid! Where are you! Kid!"

The yoma looks down at the loud mouth. Short blonde hair stylized, noisy as a woodpecker in the morning. He hisses, nearing her. She really is stupid, not to have felt his yoki. No matter. One less trainee one less claymore in the future.

He lifts his hand, yellow eyes glowing with hunger, tongue licking his upper lips. Yes, he'd kill her now. Get it over with.

There is the crunch of stone twenty feet behind him, some rocks rolling towards the collapsed building on which he stands. He looks up towards the building standing higher then his own, sniffs and curses. Another one. Younger. But sneaking up on him. Could they have planned this? Hell!

He leaps aside disappearing in another crevice, crouching low. From the streets below the older one continues to holler.

Kaede licks his lips, looking at the yoma's lean back, smelling the ripe flesh beneath. Yes, it will do. Definitely do.

Inside him Clare is shaking wildly, but this leaves him in full control of his faculties, and the yoma is seemingly unaware of them as it concentrates on the girl below. Now, a few more steps to get near...

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Wha-?"

His leg slips as he jumps back, startled. He falls forwards again, but not before his mistake forces a stone loose, rolling down the side with a jarring sound. The yoma turns, growling. He crouches low, watching it.

It sniffs the air, snarls and leaps aside disappearing into a low overhang. Damn it! Getting near the thing while its hidden and protected on all sides like that is going to be troubling. He leans forward, starting to crawl, looking around the area with crumbled rock and wood.

So torn apart this manmade structure is just another jungle, another forest for which to hunt.

"That's a yoma!" Clare whispers in a croaking voice.

"Quiet," Kaede snarls.

The yoma side of him has lost interest in the hunt. It isn't interested in eating its own. But the dragon inside snarls, eagerly awaiting the kill, the feel of blood filling its belly, and his likewise, feels equally desirous.

"Are you an idiot?" Teresa snarls. "That's a yoma! You can't go after yoma."

"Quiet! I know what I'm doing," he hisses between clenched teeth.

Teresa sighs. She steps in front of him blocking his view of the creature.

"Turn around," she orders.

"Get out of the way," he hisses. "I can't see it."

"Turn around," she says again.

"Maybe she's right," Clare says. "After all, I haven't trained enough to hunt yoma, and ..."

Their stomach growls.

"And I'm hungry!" she wails.

The yoma stirs in its crevice, hearing her. Damn it, it's looking straight at their location. He grits his teeth feeling the first tremors of fear.

He doesn't know how to work her powers, not fully. And that creature is dangerous. If it's sighted them then...

"Hey! So there you are," says the woman behind them.

Kaede's eyes widen, his heart stopping. The creature turns from its hiding place, snarling. Teresa turns for a moment regarding it and turns back to them.

"Run!"

"Hey! I need to get you out of here," the older girl says.

"Get down!" he screams and leaps at her, knocking her to the floor as the monster roars, shooting tentacle like projectiles from its fingertips. The blades pass over them just barely skimming Kaede on the surface of his back.

The older girl stares with wide eyes, looking at the tentacles just above her and watches as they quickly retract. Kaede grabs her from the hand pulling her up.

"Come on! Move!"

"Wh- what the hell?" the girl stammers. "What's going on?"

Kaede pulls the woman from the roof leaping to the floor below and ducks into an alley continuing to run. He picks up the sound of the creature leaping down, bounding after them. Hell, he thinks and ducks into an open room and ducks down below the rubble pulling the girl down with him, cupping his hand over her mouth.

"Mmph!" she complains.

"Shut up," he growls.

He turns towards the torn window, sensing the yoma. Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!

"That's a yoma," Clare whispers.

"Yeah," he says. "I hadn't noticed."

The girl stares at them as if he's gone insane, but she keeps still.

"You need to suppress your yoki," Teresa hisses.

"Little hard to do when I don't know how to do that," he says.

The girl pulls his hand away looking at him with angry eyes.

"Who the hell are you talking to?"

"Teresa," Clare answers without hesitation. Kaede grits his teeth, shutting his eyes. Yup. Now they are definitely insane.

"Teresa?" the girl says, looking around. "Is that someone else that came in here with you?"

Kaede slaps his head. "No. Just... just forget about her for the moment. We have bigger things to deal with."

"Like the fact that you're a loon?"

"What? No!..."

The girl places her hand on his mouth, her eyes having gone yellow as she looks out the window.

"Yeah. I know already. That freak outside. And I dropped my sword when you knocked me to the floor."

"A real yoma. I thought he was kidding," she whispers to herself. "I should of known better."

She's staring at the window, towards the yoma who is looking around, sniffing the air for them.

Kaede looks around the building, seeing dirt fall from the ceiling. He follows the dirt seeing an opening to the outside world. Now he'd need a distraction.

"We can't use her," Clare chides. "It's our fault she's here."

"Not really, but I wasn't planning to," he whispers.

"What?" the girl says. "Are you talking to yourself again?"

He motions with his hand. "I know a way out. Follow me." And he begins crawling towards the corner of the room.

"Hey!" the girl hisses. "Wait up!"

The girl follows noisily behind on all fours. Kaede stops her, pointing towards the opening on the ceiling. A thin one, tight even for him. The girl looks at him with narrowed eyes.

"I can't fit through there."

"I know. I need a lift up."

"But I..."

He turns towards her with firm eyes.

"Trust me. I won't abandon you."

"Fine. You better not."

He gets on her shoulders and she stands on shaky legs. He reaches for the ceiling, extending his arms but his fingertips just brushes the edges of the hole. He's still too far away.

"Damn it!" he hisses. "I can't reach."

"Here."

And suddenly he's shooting past, his arm shooting through the opening. The girl lets go of him as he reaches the top. He looks back down at her. Her face is resigned.

"Thank you," he whispers.

"Hey," she says, smiling. "Just hurry back!"

"Yes," a voice hisses. "She wouldn't want to miss dinner."

He curses inwardly and scrambles up through the hole. He turns back and looks down at the girl. She's putting up a strong front but he can smell her fear and so can the yoma who slowly descends upon her. He rushes over to the other end of the roof. Gotta' hurry! he thinks.

"We abandoned her!" Clare wails, tears already wetting his eyelids.

"No, we haven't," he says and rushes over the roof edge, leaping to the floor. He lands with a thud and turns. The dirty window, just as he'd wanted.

"We abandoned her!" Clare says again. "What can we do now?"

"Plenty," he says and presses his hand against the window glass forcing his cool energy into its liquid body.

"Kaede," Teresa says. "What are you doing?"

"Just watch."

And he feels himself as his eyes go blue, his flesh rapidly cooling, feeling every particle within the glass pane.

"Just watch."

"Looks like you've been abandoned," the yoma hisses, towering over her, each step taken seeming to half the distance between them.

"Yeah, figures you can't count on snots," Helen says. She grits her teeth, tears beginning to form at the edges of her eyes. This isn't the way she'd wanted to go out.

"Awe, tears?" the yoma coos. "Haha. My, show some back bone, will you? I promise I'll make this quick."

He flicks his blades, the wicked talons shining.

"Maybe," it says.

"Just shut up already. You reek."

"Hehe. Humor till the end? How fitting."

It lifts its taloned hand up into the air, its shadow blocking the light from the open door way. All she can see are its yellow eyes gleaming with mirth.

"Kid," she whispers to herself. "I hate you."

She hears the air crackling, the feel of it getting cooler. The yoma turns, feeling the presence too. It lowers its arm, turning towards the sound.

"What the-?"

Glass explodes, shattering and shooting inwards. The yoma turns, blocking the incoming shards with both raised arms. It shrieks with a cry of rage, the glass tearing into its flesh with resounding thunks.

"Yeeeaggghhh!"

Helen stares with wide eyes.

"What the hell?"

She hears a pitter patter of feet and as the yoma lowers its arms she sees a blur of movement, something hitting with thunk.

"You little punk," the yoma growls. "Do you really think that would do anything?"

"No, but this will."

It's the girl Helen realizes. She hears energy scream, something crunching, like ice freezing. The yoma roars and swings its great arms. There is a loud crack as something is struck and Helen sees the girl fly towards the side wall and hit with a thud.

"You little..." the yoma growls. "Aaagh!"

It hugs itself, hunching over, almost falling to its knees. What the hell? Helen thinks. What did she do to it?

"Punch it in the stomach!" the girl yells.

"What?" Helen says in a daze.

"Hit him in the stomach! Now!"

"Are you crazy?"

"Just do it!"

The monster turns, swinging its arm wide. Helen dodges below and sees the crystal formation on the its stomach. Like ice spreading from the wound with five small puncture wounds. With the yoma's movement the ice cracks, blood beginning to ooze out.

"Don't know what the hell she did," she whispers. "But it's now or never!"

She slams her fist into its stomach hearing glass shatter, feeling the ice covering give way to softer stronger flesh, but flesh that is much weaker and softer then her hand. Ooh, gross! she thinks.

The monster lets out a yowl, arching its back.

"You little" it snarls, turning its gaze towards her.

"Oh crap," and her hand feels stuck in the monster's body. She pulls but can't feel her arm giving way from flesh before she sees claws rushing towards her face. She shuts her eyes, squeezing them and hears the monster let out another scream. The claws barely brush past her cheek, leaving three horizontal marks. She manages to yank out her arm, now covered in gore.

She feels her wet cheek. A small wound. Nothing serious.

She looks up at the monster who struggles with the girl on its back, her fingers gouging its eyes, a crunching noise coming from their crevices. Her own eyes glow an intense blue and smoke billows from the sockets of the screaming beast.

She pulls away, dropping from the monster in front of Helen. She is gasping, her body sweating profusely.

"What are you?"

The monster roars, swinging wildly. Helen scuttles back, the girl disappearing beneath the shadow of the beast' claws. The next moment she watches as the girl thrust both hands against the open wound in the monster's stomach, energy screaming, her hands glowing a pure blue, giving a reflective color showing the bones within the flesh.

That's not a claymore! Helen thinks. The cold energy screams for a second with the monster then fades with that same scream. There is a crunching and Helen watches as the yoma's entire body becomes covered in a sheet of ice, its movements slowing to a halt, freezing in mid motion. A statue made of ice.

"What are you?" Helen ask in a hushed whisper.

The girl holds her hands up to her face, shaking.

"I don't know! I don't know! How did.."

Her hand suddenly strikes forward towards the yoma's stomach, thrusting up and into the ice figure.

"Kaede!" she screams wide eyed. "What are you doing?"

"Feeding," another voice says. "Concentrate."

Another voice, but from the same body. The serious one she'd been speaking to earlier. Helen watches, her heart beating rapidly in her chest. Both sounded like different people. One a child who didn't seem to understand. And the other? What is the other?

As Helen watches she sees the girl's arm going blue, some liquid flowing out of the yoma over her arm and sinking into it? That can't be right. She stares, looking harder. The water, as that is what it looks like, flows out of the body in a flowing stream sinking into her arm.

At first, the girl seems wide eyed and frightened, but slowly her eyes seem to close, her body heaving a sigh. And Helen watches, the wounds on the girl's back seem to shut with the crackling noise of ice, sealing rapidly with a steaming smoke.

Helen's heart thunders in her chest, her breath coming out in a soft gasp, eyes wide. She stares, and wonders, has she truly escaped the monster or been left with another?


	6. Contingency Plans

CONTINGENCY PLANS

Scene I

Rubel

Rubel walks down the dirty confines of the city, accompanied by Rafaela. Earlier he'd been told to find the errant claymore with a super human's blood. He sighs. It would be so much simpler to just be done with her, but what can be done? The leaders are interested in this unique creature. He'd protested mildly saying she was a waste of time, but still they insisted. How bothersome. And she truly may be worth something, but they shouldn't find out.

With any fortune the yoma in this deserted place has already killed her. He walks slowly, looking over the structures here, rubbing the fuzz on a new peach he'd picked up, dipping it with poison.

"Do you sense her here, Rafaela?" he ask the grizzled, one eyed woman. She'd lost her eye in a fight with Isely, an abyssal monster, when her sister had become an awakened herself. The woman turns towards him silently and nods.

"To the south east."

"Then we'll head there, I suppose."

"What of the yoma? Do you sense its whereabouts?"

Rafaela shakes her head.

"No? Curious. I wonder if it ran out with a fright? Come along then."

Curious indeed. Yoma don't frighten easily, especially with cadets. Over half the cadets generally wound up dead in these "field test." Those who didn't sense yoki or ignored it would often be killed. The commanding officer here had said there had been a yoma placed in this abandoned town specifically to train the young cadets for their graduation exam. That when he'd been about to send them out a young girl had wandered past. One in a cadet's gear, but severely bloodied and with long brown hair, too young to be wandering by herself. One of the cadets had ran in after her. That had been two hours ago. None had seen anything of the two since then. It would be unlikely that a yoma would take to fear from those two, especially the girl, looking as human as she does. But looks are obviously deceiving.

"They're coming down the road," says Rafaela.

Rubel looks up from his musings looking towards the duo. The older girl walks rigidly, claymore at her side, looking towards them but past them, like at a ghost. And Clare... walks with arms clasped about her shoulders, looking down at the floor. Rubel smiles. Probably got scolded by the older one.

Rubel nods taking steps towards the older cadet.

"So you managed to dispose of the yoma and find our errant pupil? How good of you."

She walks past him, as if not seeing him. Her eyes, they are wide with fright. Troubling.

Rafaela grabs her from the shoulder, turning her.

"One of the elders was asking you a question, look up!"

"Huh?"

The child seems dazed. Most worrisome. He turns towards Clare.

"The yoma must have been very frightening, mustn't it child?"

"Yoma?" the older girl says, laughing hysterically. "No. It's that girl that's really frightening."

"The girl?" Rubel asks.

"Yeah, what she did to it..." She turns, smiling. "So this is your special case, huh? Well, I can see why you want to keep an eye on her."

"Did she do something?" Rubel ask.

"Yeah, you could say that," the girl says with a resigned look.

"I didn't mean to..." Clare says. "I mean, I meant to, but I didn't... I don't know what... What am I?"

She clasps her face with both hands beginning to cry.

"She's a freak, that's what," says the cadet.

"Now. Now. Let's not use harsh words." He turns towards Clare handing her the peach. "Here now. Calm your nerves. Now, what happened?" He doesn't really care. It will be over with soon.

"I... I.." Clare begins, then she looks down at the peach, turning it over.

"What is this?" she ask, her voice suddenly turning serious, her eyes narrowing.

"Food. Isn't that what you want?"

The air crackles, her hand glowing a soft blue. There is a crunching noise as the peach glows, turning bluish with a body of ice growing over it. Clare's hand squeezes over it, tightening and the peach shatters.

"Well now... isn't that wasteful? And here I thought you'd be appreciative of my offering," he says. Why did she freeze it anyways? It's as if she suspected...

"It was poisoned," she says. "It serves me little if it's inedible to begin with."

Rubel is taken aback. How did she know? He turns towards Rafaela who regards him with a serious glare. The other girl is staring wide-eyed, her mouth partially agape. Rubel tips his hat.

"I see. You didn't kill the yoma, did you girl?" he asks the cadet.

Rafaela gives the girl a light push.

"N-no. I didn't. It was her," she says, pointing at Clare. Clare shakes her head cupping her face with her hands, losing her composure once more. Rubel grabs her arm, losing his patience.

"C'mon girl. Show us what you did."

Clare nods, pointing south east.

"I'm staying right here," says the cadet.

"Rafaela, bring her along if you would. We don't want her spreading stories."

Rafaela gives the girl a push. The cadet looks back, gritting her teeth but sighs in resignation at a glance from the older woman.

They follow Clare to an old dilapidated building. She points at its insides, beyond the door. Rubel pulls down his glasses, stuffing them into a jacket pocket. Rafaela herself has tensed. The air about the area is chill, like winter, but the sun beats down overhead with a blaring heat. That heat burns his back, but before him a soft smoke billows out of the house, its right window panes missing... it..

Only the panes are missing. The wood braces remain intact. Curious. He feels the wood panels with his fingers. Smooth to the touch.

"Did you do this?" he ask Clare.

She looks away. Answer enough.

"And what of the yoma?"

She points with her finger, just past the doorway.

"Inside," she says quietly.

"Inside?"

She nods. He smiles, cupping his hands together behind his back and walks inside. It is dark within save for some large ornate crystal. Strange. Looters should have stolen such a thing ages ago. Was it brought here for safe keeping? And where is the yoma?

He takes several steps closer, looking around the empty room for the creature. All that lies within is the large crystal statue shining strangely, dripping droplets of water... Dripping?

He takes a closer look at the creature, some dragon in design, or so he'd thought. But the bald head, very defined ridged muscles, its bipedal position and arms extended out. He sucks in a breath of air stopping himself before he lifts his hand completely to his face. He lowers his hand, taking his dark glasses out from his pocket instead and quickly puts them on.

"Well then," he says, turning towards the group. "This is quite the interesting turn of events, isn't it? It seems our young Clare has greater use then we imagined." He turns towards the statue once more, focusing on its frozen scream. A scream of agony and anguish. To be frozen alive. "Much greater then we imagined," he whispers quietly.

He turns and walks out of the room, hands clasped behind his back.

"Come along then, we have much to consider."

He walks quickly, thinking. This is a turn of events. He chuckles softly but can not stop the rapid beating of his heart. When he turns to the cadet he knows the fear in her eyes is matched by his own.

Scene II

Kaede

"They don't intend to let you train or hunt properly, Clare," Kaede says looking at her from a floating mist. She nods her head, tears filling her eyes.

"I know. But what am I supposed to do? Rubel says they're going to send me and Helen into another nest of yoma without letting us out to train. How am I supposed to learn without being able to go outside?"

He shuts his eyes, breathing in deeply.

In this world both can speak freely, when Clare no longer has consciousness and her body falls to rest. This place he thinks, is the place of dreams. Here, in this cloudy, misty space with white light and no warmth or cold he has a sense of being able to think without being interrupted. Without having to worry of the actions of others. For now.

But what is there to do, to do when Clare can't go outside? He can't teach her, train her to survive in real world situations if she is never allowed out. And even he has his limits. After all, wasn't he murdered by a creature of this world?

"The sacarson will learn from within the depths of her mind," a feminine voice says from within the mist.

Kaede and Clare turn to the voice seeing the white dragoness stepping forward from the gray clouds. She lowers her long neck, her face coming with inches of Clare's. "You will learn from within the sanctuary of your own mind. What you learn here will be applied to your own body in the real world. What is more, I can disrupt space and time so what seems like days here will only be minutes in your world."

"But... but... I'm scared."

"Don't be," another voice says. A statuesque woman with flowing blonde hair steps out from behind the dragon. "Clare, I'll be with you on your training as well. You can't become a claymore without learning the sword after all."

"Teresa!" Clare says. The woman smiles softly. "Yes, Clare. I'm here too."

She rushes up to the woman, wrapping her arms around her waist.

"I'm so scared. What is it I'm doing? Why am I not normal like you?"

Teresa strokes her hair, speaking softly. "I never was normal Clare."

Clare pulls away from her, tears streaming down her eyes.

"But.. but.. I need to sleep more and.. and... why do I have these powers?" she says looking down at her trembling hands.

"Because of me," Kaede says.

"I hate you!" she yells, rushing up to him and hitting his chest with her small fist. "I hate you. I hate you."

"I know."

Clare is taken aback, her words frozen in her mouth. Kaede kneels down, taking her hands into his.

"I never would have chosen this for you. I would have preferred you just be a regular claymore like Teresa, but that is not what the gods have chosen. So we'll have to train you this way. I'm sorry. Hate me if you must. But it's the way it is."

"Why?"

"Because your world is going to change, and they have chosen you to do it."

"That's okay."

"Huh?" Kaede says taken aback.

"Kaede wouldn't lie to me. You're not trying to hurt me then?"

He shakes his head.

"No. What you did with the yoma, with the glass, that's what people with your powers do. Clare..." he says, squeezing her hands. "You won't be alone this way forever. You're just the first. I hope you understand."

"Yes," she says nodding. Her smile falters. But when would there be another? She doesn't voice this. Just smiles for the sad eyed man.

"Clare," says Teresa, "We should start. We don't have long."

Clare nods, a sword materializing in her own hands. Teresa smiles and withdraws her own blade.

Scene III

Anna

The girl lies sleeping, restless against the floor. Her hair spread out around her like a pillow, her eyes fluttering slightly.

"Teresa," the girl whispers.

The other girl in the cell sits against the wall of the small room both had been moved to, staring at Clare as at an adder with its fangs bared. She flinches with every movement of the girl's. She barely glances at Anna and Rubel behind the cell door, so focused on the girl on the floor.

Anna steps away from the door thinking, her long hair dropping over her eyes. She glowers at the floor then back at the pair.

"So you see your targets then?" the dark man behind the shades says. The girl nods, gritting her teeth.

"So you'll leave Beth and Alicia out of this if I kill them both? You'll keep the organization from turning them into Claymores? You'll let them go?"

The man turns away from her, walking away from the cell.

"Yes. I'll assign you to their unit for the test tomorrow. Dispose of these two and any who witness the girl's powers on the field. None must know of the potential of this girl."

The girl nods, taking a step away from the cell.

"I won't fail."

"That's a good girl Anna," he says already beginning his walk down the hall. "See that you don't."


	7. Learning to Understand Her Body

LEARNING TO UNDERSTAND HER OWN BODY

Scene I

Clare

The wet grass feels warm beneath her feet. Clare rubs against it, feeling it crunch beneath. She smiles, stretching her arms out behind her, sucking in the cool air. She feels the material pull against her body, the soft leathers and cottons. A blue skirt with dark cottons over the form fitting white of the claymore. She looks at the combination of uniforms with a bit of awe, even now, still, as if it hadn't actually been a full year since she had been with Teresa and Kaede, training every day in their presence under the different fighting styles, growing stronger in her own way. Learning, fighting.

She still has trouble accepting the fact that in the real world all this time will have amounted to mere hours. Could that truly be right? Months of knowledge in mere hours. But the dragoness had torn the spirit world to enable her this ability to train under the eyes of Kaede in and Teresa. As something not quite a claymore and not quite whatever Kaede is... ninja did he call it? She..

"Are you ready Clare?" Kaede asks.

She nods, clasping her hands into a ball she feels the cold air gathering in a spiral at their center as a creature materializes before her, coming out of the grass. A glowing form of liquid and mass shaped like a yoma. It snarls, shaking its head and charges. She shoots the ball of ice and the monster leaps into the air, jumping over the attack.

The air condenses around her wrist, a line of energy forming and cooling, forming a blade. She rolls with the yoma's oncoming attack, turns and slashes through its mid section, its watery form splitting in two.

"Good work, my student," Kaede says.

She bows, hands clasped together.

"Thank you Kaedesan." San. That word had seemed strange to her at first, but Kaede had explained that it is a title of respect, and so she'd come to use it both with Kaede and Teresa. Teresa herself had been at odds with the word but she'd come to accept some of Kaede's stranger habits after a few months.

Clare looks down at her open palm, able to clearly see the flow of her own blood now, like a blue current constantly flowing. She understands that power now, the one that once made her fear. She closes her palm into a fist, feeling the energy within her hand condensing into a tight ball.

"You are ready," Kaede whispers sadly. "Soon we will send you back to the real world."

Clare looks up, startled, but says nothing.

"I agree. You're almost done here, Clare," says Teresa, coming out of the woods. "You should be able to take anything the organization tosses at you now."

The organization? She'd forgotten about them, it felt like it had been so long since she'd been there. In a cold dark cage, where here, she sucks in another breath of air. Where here she was in the clear forest with the cool winds blowing from the high mountain peaks with both Teresa and Kaede. To believe this is a dark recess opened up within the soul. A beautiful place...

But she'd need to go back. She'd been told of this day for a long time now, since the beginning.

Teresa looks her over, arms folded across her chest.

"I suppose this is the best we can do with the time allotted. Clare, I hope you know how much Kaede and I care for you."

Clare bows.

"I know Teresasan. Thank you."

Teresa shakes her head. "You don't need to use "san" with me. Teresa is fine. That "title" is just something for stuffy old men like that boy over there," she says, pointing at Kaede. He pouts for a moment then shakes his head with a smile.

"Thank you Teresa," says Clare.

"From here on in all the choices you make will be your own. We can't protect you anymore."

"I know," Clare says.

"You really have grown."

Clare smiles.

"Clare," Kaede says in a serious tone. She turns towards him.

"Never let the organization push you around. Do what you must, but under your own code of honor, not theirs. Understood?"

"Yes Kaedesan."

He smiles. "Good." He walks up to her, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her close. "I am proud of you, my child."

Clare shuts her eyes, feeling tears welling at her own eyes. She returns his embrace, holding him for a time until he steps back. He smiles softly, his eyes glistening.

"Good girl."

Catching hold of his emotions he crosses his arms. "You will soon awake. This year you have spent here will soon show on your body. Make certain to acquire food soon, as you'll need it for the change that will be coming upon you. It's going to be violent so you need to be quick about it."

She nods. "Yes sir."

Teresa places her hand on Clare's shoulder. "Be good Clare."

"Yes mam."

Teresa smiles. "I can never get used to that sort of thing."

She walks over to Kaede placing her hand on his shoulder.

"You two ready?"

Kaede and Clare both nod.

"Goodbye Clare," she says, placing her hand on Kaede's shoulder.

Both figures disappear, fading slowly. The forest and stream with the mountains ripple, fading into mist. Clare closes her eyes and opens them slowly, the cold stone floor beneath her arms. She lifts herself slowly, her body shaking with fatigue. She shakes her head, trying to clear her senses.

"So you're finally awake," a voice says from her left.

She turns drawing forth a blade from her palm with the condensed air, and presses it close to the young woman's neck. She stares wide eyed, her silver eyes bulging.

"What the hell?" she gasp.

"Who are you?" Clare says.

"Have you lost your mind?" the girl shouts.

"Who are you?" Clare repeats.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten already? Remember. I'm the one who went into the dirty ruin down town to save your damn ass. Though I would have left you there if I'd known better."

Clare places a hand against her forehead, looking away from the girl.

"Town?"

She really doesn't remember.

"I don't remember," she says.

"You're kidding me. It was yesterday for crying out loud! Don't tell me your powers leave you brain dead too?"

Clare withdraws the blade, letting the form slip away from her. It dissolves as it falls to the floor, her arm shaking violently. Yesterday? Had it really been yesterday? She looks at the girl.

"Yesterday? It was... aaagghhh!" she says, gripping her arm. It shakes violently, the cells screaming.

"What's wrong?" Helen says.

"I need food," she says quietly. "That's all."

"Really? Is it this bad normally?"

"No."

She looks at her arm, looking through it. The flesh is trying to stretch, bones pulling at their confines. The body is devouring itself for energy. She needs food badly.

"Maybe it's that yoma you ate. Maybe you shouldn't have been so hasty in eating it, or whatever you did."

"Yes, maybe. But I'll have to do it again."

"Yeah. Yeah. The organization. Whatever."

The girl looks away from her keeping her gaze averted. Yes. Her powers aren't something regular here. She'd already forgotten the loneliness of this place.

"Be strong," a voice whispers behind her. She turns but sees no one. She can see no one. She holds her head and shakes herself. They are gone. She won't hear or see them now.

She stands on shaky legs looking at her arms going blue.

"I need to leave."

"Yeah, well..."

The door opens with a creak. Clare leaps back, clasping her hands in a ball, the energy within her screaming, but able to do nothing. She curls over, heaving bile. Her body is starving.

The door swings open and clothes are tosses at her feet. She looks up slowly, looking into the dark rimmed glasses of Rubel.

"My, didn't that nap do you any good? I suppose it does not matter. The council has agreed that the test you and the girl here went through yesterday wasn't a thorough examination of your skills. So today they are going to send you through a more... equivalent battery to test your abilities."

"What?" the older girl with Clare shrieks. "I barely survived the last encounter."

Rubel pushes his glasses up against his nose.

"True. But you didn't actually help kill the yoma yesterday either. So your skills are also untested."

The girl grits her teeth, tears welling up in her eyes.

Clare stands, finishing with the change of clothes while Rubel is speaking.

"Don't worry," she says. "I'll protect you."

The girl turns towards her with shocked eyes.

"Wha?" She turns away gritting her teeth.

"Thanks. But no thanks."

"Well then," Rubel says, turning away from the pair. "Shall we?"

Clare nods and follows. The other girl snarls but follows. Clare watches Rubel's back, licking her lips. So much energy. She wants to eat him.

No, she thinks. I'll wait. I'll wait. And she clenches her fist in anticipation.

Scene II

Rubel

He turns back towards the girl, staring through his dark glasses. Odd. She seems sick. He turns away smiling. Well, perhaps what she did to the yoma wasn't such a good idea. It seems to have had an averse effect on her.

Maybe he hadn't truly needed to make those arrangements with Anna. But then, this girl is always full of surprises. It's good to have a safety. And getting rid of two unruly claymore with her is an added bonus.

As he walks with the click of his boots he hears a thud behind him.

He turns, seeing the young girl against the wall, slumping to the floor.

"Hey," the older girl with her says. "Are you okay?" But he notes the older one is fighting with her desires, wanting to help but afraid of what this girl can do. Curious. She leans close with her hands extended towards the younger girl.

"Don't touch me!" snaps the younger one.

The older one pulls back, a hurt feeling in her eyes. She grits her teeth, anger filling her eyes.

"Fine. Watch out..."

"It's dangerous. Can't control my powers right now... need energy... If you get too close... I can't promise your safety."

The girl pushes herself up slowly.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

"Look..." says the older one going to grab the younger one. But Clare pushes herself off, purposely falling to the floor.

"Don't touch me! I'll kill you!"

The older one stares with a rigid expression. Then she smiles.

"You're an idiot. Now.."

"Just give me a minute."

The young girl stands up slowly on wobbly legs.

"Are you ready then?" Rubel asks. Clare nods. But her face appears terribly pale. This has to be more then the yoma. But it does not matter. It serves his purposes all the better.

"Follow me then."

The two girls follow, the one stumbling but denying any request for help, the other arguing back about the first' idiocy. Truly? Could these two actually survive? Maybe he should cancel his arrangements with Anna. Let her rot. Her two sisters are important to the organization, and getting them out could be... troublesome.

He walks down the winding stairs hearing Clare stumble but never fall. Curious. And always the arguments.

A tall claymore stands below at the door way, her single eye staring frost like at the trio. Rubel stops only a few feet away from her.

"Ah, Rafaela. Shall we then?"

The woman nods and pushes the door open. Not ten seconds of having it open Rubel feels Clare rush past him, her hand pressing against his side to move him out of the way, burning his side. He lets out a small cry as he stumbles to the floor. There is a thud at the doorway with the clatter of a blade.

Rubel looks up expecting it to be the girl and is surprised to find Rafaela also holding her side, blood seeping from a wound. She is gritting her teeth, turned towards the girl she sees outside, reaching for her blade.

"Rafaela," Rubel says. She turns towards him. "Don't," he says. She gives him a sour look but stands slowly. As her hand falls away from her side he gasp seeing a purple mark with the imprint of a small hand on it.

"So that's why she was saying not to touch her," the girl behind him says quietly. "She barely touched either of you and this is what happened."

"Yes, it seems she had her reasons," he says. He gets up slowly, gritting his teeth. Was that a crack of his rib? That girl will pay.

"Rafaela, where is our errant student?"

Rafaela does not answer, only looking quietly outside. A sharp wind is blowing in, cool to the touch.

"Rafaela?" he repeats.

She turns briefly then nods her head towards the door. "You should see for yourself."

"Truly? Being defiant now, are you?" he says. He walks towards the doorway and stops before stepping outside, his jaw dropping.

"Told you she was a monster," the older girl says from behind him.

Rubel closes his mouth and regards Clare for a moment. She is splayed on all fours just ten feet ahead of them. The training of the other students has gone eerily quiet as they watch the girl seated on the grass, or what was grass.

The wind swirls and screams around her, the expanse of grass around the girl shriveling up and drying. This sphere of energy spreads and more of the green grass turns brown and shrivels. Rubel looks on glumly. Unexpected. This girl is always unexpected.

He takes a step towards the girl entering the field of decaying grass.

"Sir?" Rafaela asks.

He looks down, feeling something beneath him being drawn towards his girl, but the energy stops at his feet.

"Not to worry, Rafaela. It's just a mild complication. That's all."

He walks up towards the girl.

"Are you finished yet?"

The girl pulls herself up from the floor, the blades of grass crunching beneath her grip.

"Not quite," she says. "But I'll wait until I can find something bigger."

She stands slowly, looking his way a moment before turning away. Did her cheeks seem to have more color now? Curious.

"I'm sorry. I'll try and control myself better. My body feels... more relaxed."

"Good. See that you do."

He walks past her and soon hears the girl following. The energy whipping against his back, grassy blades crunching beneath her feet and soon before him. He watches uneasily, as he sees the grass before him turning brown. What is that girl doing?

He looks on sourly. Perhaps he can have Rafaela kill her now, but if the council got wind of what she has done here, which shouldn't be long from the whispers of people about the field, they would not be best pleased. No. His contingency plan is still in effect. The girl will die in the field. Hopefully.

He looks over his shoulder towards the group. The older cadet is following from several feet behind, keeping Rafaela between herself and Clare. And Rafaela herself... she seems to be squeezing the handle on her claymore rather tightly, her face more sour then normal.

For the young girl's own part, she just looks on seriously, waiting for him to move on. No longer stumbling or looking so pale. Just staring. Unnerving.

He has his contingency plan with Anna. But will it be enough?

Scene III

Clare

Clare looks on, following Rubel. She can smell his fear, all of them. Even the adult claymore. She can sense the woman wants to kill her... why? Because she's afraid. Afraid of a small child.

She looks down at the floor, at the dried grass she has drained of every particle of life, every piece of moisture for her own support. She can feel the blades crunching and blowing with the wind. Dried husk of flesh.

She had been foolish. Running off like that, smacking both Rubel and the old claymore in the sides knowing her body was screaming for food. But she'd had no choice. Her body had felt like it was eating itself inside out. It had taken most of her resolve not to fall or attack either Rubel or the older cadet. Drain them of their blood... the water they held inside... eat their flesh.

She shakes her head. This is her yoma side but it is also her draconic side. This had been explained to her by Kaede. They would eat their own in a bid for survival, in the place where he came from. The body would naturally seek out and hunt those elements that had the life giving energy it needed. In her case, any body that held water. In cases of starvation the body would pull from any source regardless of the desires of its owner. This is what had happened to Rubel and Rafaela. Even though it had been brief she had burned away a small part of their energy, tearing a gash in their sides. Neither seemed to have noticed or were ignoring it.

She holds herself, feeling her stomach rumbling, still hungering. She hoped dearly she'd be hunting yoma. She needs to feed. And soon...

Notes

Alright. You'll notice a new form of separating scenes in this chapter. That's because of the confusion I've heard of from reviewers in scene breaks due to what 's editing system naturally does. I'll go back and correct the scenes for the other chapters soon so they're easier to follow. Thanks for reading and feel free to critique.

Next chapter will come out soon.


	8. Who Can You Trust?

WHO CAN YOU TRUST?

Scene I

Clare-

"So it seems you four seem to have some issues," Rubel begins, walking around the grassy field.

"So we're going to place you together as one unit."

Clare looks over her companions. Her cell companion still looks at her as if at a live yoma. The girl might get herself killed focusing too much on her. Another one, with dark hair behind the one to her right, she focuses on Clare with a dangerous edge. Something similar to killing intent. Short hair to her shoulders, pulled back from her forehead, with sharp eyes. Dangerous.

The other one stretches, pulling at her arms and yawning.

"I'm sorry, Ophelia," says Rubel. "Do you find my lecture about your impending dangers to be... tedious?"

The girl, one with a long pony tail, and elfish ears and bright eyes looks towards Rubel defiantly.

"Whatever. You making me do this because I hacked that yoma when that girl was in the way? She was in the way. What was I suppose to do? Let the yoma gut us both?"

She cut someone down? Not good. Another loose card. So the only one she can rely on is... Clare looks towards the girl with short hair who is scared witless. Great.

"Regardless, Ophelia," says Rubel, "You should have considered your partner. You didn't hesitate."

"Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. Team mates. Bah. It's overrated. That won't let me kill that one horned bitch."

"Huh?" Clare says, staring at the girl with wide eyes.

"What?" she says.

"Oh," Rubel says, pushing up his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "You didn't know, did you Ophelia?" He says this while moving next to Clare, Clare just looks on regarding him with cold eyes.

"Our resident experiment here also lost people important to her to that... how did you call her? One horned bitch, was it? Yes. That creature. You and Clare share a like history in that regard."

The girl looks over her with narrowed eyes. They don't seem friendly.

Clare bites her lower lip. Is everyone here an enemy?

Her stomach rumbles, her energy is trying to draw out more water from the surrounding area, but she'll need something more direct soon. She feels ... nauseous. She won't be able to focus if this goes on for too much longer.

Someone kicks her from the back.

"Hey, why'd you do that?" ask the scared girl.

"Quiet girl," says a commanding voice. "This one cost us a true warrior. And for her efforts she is nothing more then a sniveling human. No. Less then a monster and not a human. Less then a worm."

That voice. She recognizes it. The one they'd formerly assigned as an assistant trainer with Rubel. Orsay. The one responsible for Teresa's and Kaede's deaths.

"You," she snarls standing up on shaky legs.

"You have something to say girl?" he hisses behind her neck.

"No," she says. "You'll know in time."

"Why you.." the man snarls, pulling his arm back.

"Now. Now," says Rubel. "You need to manage your temper. It is your fault after all that we lost two fine warriors in that... skirmish."

Orsay looks away in disgust.

"Now," says Rubel continuing. "You four have been chosen to prove your real potential and destroy a nest of yoma. Should you pass you will become full blooded warriors. Should you fail... well... you know what happens then."

"A whole nest of yoma?" screeches the scared one. "But I... I barely survived the first one!"

"Well then, you'd better work harder to survive this time, shouldn't you?"

The girl bites her lower lip. Her body is trembling. The waves of fear coming off her, it is thick and suffocating. Can this girl really survive? Clare sighs.

"Don't worry," she tells the girl. "I'll protect you."

The girl turns towards her with apprehension.

"Don't worry about her," says the one with the pony tail. "Just watch your own back."

The other one that is unnamed with the dark glance just considers her for a moment and turns away. No telling that one's actions one way or another.

Rubel looks them over for a minute then nods his head in ascent.

"Alright, everyone dismissed."

Finally. Her stomach is growling incredibly. She feels someone tap her on the shoulder and turns her head, controlling the urge of her body's to draw out energy from that person. It's the scared girl. Her eyes look away for a moment then back at Clare's.

"Hey," she says in a hushed whisper. "I just wanted to say... uh.. Thanks. I'll try and watch your back too."

Clare nods.

"And my name's Helen if you don't remember."

"Clare," she answers. "Sorry. I've forgotten things of late." Her stomach growls once more. She grips it feeling pain inside, her flesh moving and tearing at itself. "Come on. Let's hurry. I won't be able to function for much longer without food."

"Function? Man, you're using complicated words now. When did you change all of a sudden?"

"All of a sudden? It might be. Let's hurry. My systems won't keep for long."

And she begins stumbling down the green hill, hurt feet barely absorbing any water from the earthy fields any longer.

"He- hey! Wait up!" says Helen.

"Hey Kid!" says a loud voice from the crest of the hill. Clare stops midway down to look up at the girl with pointy ears. Ophelia. Both she and the other girl look on the duo with severe looks.

"Kid. I'll be watching you. We have a similar goal after all. Let's see who gets that Bitch first, shall we?" She says this with a big smile, her eyes gleaming mischievously.

Clare nods.

Now there is one left. But is she enemy or foe? Her stomach growls again. No time for that. Just go down and eat. Worry later. And she begins stumbling at a half sprint again.

Scene II

Helen

Helen follows a few paces away. The freak girl... Clare... stumbles every so often, nearly tripping over stones. Her skin... looks really pale.

Helen looks around for the other two girls but they're nowhere to be seen. She grits her teeth. She really doesn't want to be with this Clare person. She knows she just agreed to watch out for her but... Oh c'mon Helen, she thinks. What's the worst that can happen? Die a bloody and grisly death? Yeah, that's going to happen anyways. Might as well stick around someone who might help.

She looks at Clare who has collapsed on top of a large stone just outside the gates of a small town. Her breathing is hard and ragged, sweat pouring down her face. Where is the monster? The girl with all the power? What was it the old guy with a rotting face had said? Oh yeah, that she wasn't even a monster, just a worm. Looking at the girl Helen can almost agree. Almost. But, she did come back for me back then, didn't she? That counts for something, right?

But looking at the girl she can not be sure. Maybe it was all to distract the yoma. Maybe.. Ah hell, she doesn't know.

She looks up at the open gates to the town. A nest of yoma? She always thought they'd live in places that were falling apart like that village where Clare killed the first one, but this place has new stones and mortar, tall spires towering over her and even some guard towers, but without the guards. In fact, this place actually feels more eerie then the village.

"Ssssss," a voice growls to her right behind a stone wall. "Human... I never thought they'd send such a small waif like yourself. Eh-hahahaha."

The creature walks out from the stone outcrop not bothering to hide its shape. Its hunched form steps out with curved feet digging at the floor, curved talons on gorilla sized arms nearly dragging through the dirt. It salivates, licking at its lips.

"So many of us here. I'd even eat claymore right now, but you..." It slurps its lips again, dark eyes gleaming. Clare lifts her head, struggling to do that. "You, you are nearly human. What do you taste like?"

It stands over Clare, breathing heavily, sucking in vast amounts of the dawn air. "Mmm... human..."

Helen feels the slick sweat of her claymore, rubs against it, gritting her teeth, and charges the creature. It turns as she leaps at it, grabbing her around the throat, small eyes gleaming.

"You didn't think I'd forgotten about you, did you?"

Hell! Helen thinks. I thought it didn't know!

"I told you... I'd eat claymore as well. I'm going to eat both your livers!"

She hears a thud, and a loud crack. The monster screams, letting her go and turns towards Clare, swatting her aside, slamming her against the side wall of the building.

"You little slut!" it growls, holding its left side. "That hurt."

Clare struggles trying to lift herself, but she's hurt. Hurt badly.

Damn it! Helen thinks and charges the yoma again. This time, with its full attention on Clare, Helen manages to swing her blade cutting through the yoma's hard skull. The body is hard and thick, but she just clears the bone, the top half of the skull flying off. The yoma turns momentarily, regarding her with half an eye, before toppling over, its head spilling blood onto the floor. Oh gross, she thinks.

"Ahnnnn..." Clare groans.

"Clare!" Helen says, rushing over to the young girl and helping her up. The girl lets out a yelp, wincing against her grip.

"What is it?" Helen ask.

"My ribs. It broke my ribs."

"What are we.."

"The blood. Get me to the yoma. Hurry. More are coming."

"But we should..."

"Hurry Helen. I'm going to die otherwise, no matter what you do."

Helen looks at her with a steely gaze and finally turns away.

"Fine. Just don't do anything creepy."

"Alright," says Clare weakly. "Don't watch."

Helen curses, but takes Clare over to the dead body. They stand next to the open wound of the head, the blood pooling around their feet.

"Just put me down here," says Clare.

Helen shrugs, but does as she is told. The girl collapses on the floor, and immediately lifts her hand towards the yoma's wound, touching the bloody edges then...

Helen turns away unable to watch. The bile in her stomach will just come up otherwise.

She hears the squelching of blood and flesh, and something being sucked or drained, a wrinkling crunching sound following. Helen looks out from the corner of her eye unable to sate her curiosity and turns away almost instantly, heaving bile over to her left, falling to her knees to do so.

"What are you?" she whispers, but the girl does not answer. There is only that squishing, crunching noise like something being sucked dry. Sucked dry. The yoma body had looked as if it were shrinking on itself, everything of its insides being drained. She didn't dare look at Clare for fear of what was happening, what might be happening to her. A brief moment. The girl is a monster, no doubt of it. That's it. Screw the promise! She's...

Something grabs her from the back of her scalp, pulling her across the ground.

"Look what we got here, Rentz," hisses a foul smelling voice. "A claymore wandering alone."

The other yoma comes into view, blocking the sun's light. Like the first yoma she'd seen, only its eyes seem to shine from the shadows. It licks its upper lips, slurping.

"Claymore... young from the looks of it. I wonder..."

He lifts the shirt over Helen's stomach putting its clammy hand against her skin. "I wonder what her liver taste like."

"Get off me!" Helen screams, but the other yoma has her sword hand pinned.

"Now, now," says the yoma with its hand on her stomach, beginning to dig its nails into her flesh. "Don't struggle. Let us enjoy ourselves."

Helen feels tears flowing down her cheeks.

"No... please. Not like this."

The two creatures breathe fetid smelling air onto her face, laughing softly.

"Now shall we, brother?"

"Yes, let's."

Helen arches her back feeling the nails actually beginning to sink into her flesh. Damn that girl, she thinks. Damn her and her stupid pow...

There is a crackling sound, like something freezing over, and the shadows over her begin to glow, their smells suddenly fading and the air about her beginning to feel extraordinarily cold. The nails in her skin drawing blood are suddenly freezing. Helen struggles, pulling and hears a rapid crack. The nails in her stomach snap, the arms holding her down from her scalp and sword arm cracking. And these too crunch and snap.

Helen stands up, swatting at the nails in her stomach and accidentally backs into the monster who first grabbed her. Her hip bumps into its snout and the ice enveloping it crunches. She turns and the head of the beast is pulled away, left arm falling away.

"Wh- what?" Helen ask looking over the beast as the frozen figure ripples with fissures and cracks, splitting apart and shattering. "What.. What happened?"

She hears a crash and turns. Clare has rammed her right arm into the second frozen creature, her arm going blue as liquid and energy flow up her arm, her eyes rolling up in her head as if in ecstacy.

"What are you doing?" Helen ask.

Clare closes her eyes and yanks her arm out of the creature's throat, the body of the beast shattering in shining glass fragments across the floor. Clare looks down at the monster and its remains.

"What are you doing?" Helen ask again.

"Feeding," Clare says. "C'mon, we don't..."

"Rrrraaaaaaawwwwrrrrrrraaaaaa!"

Both turn towards the gates looking at the number of beast with reptilian heads poking out from crevices and corners, all eyes intent on the two of them.

"What the hell?" says Helen with a gasp, her eyes bulging, her sword slipping.

"Don't drop it," says Clare. "You won't have a chance to pick it up if it falls."

Helen corrects her grip. The girl is standing fine now, but she's holding her ribs.

"So what now?"

"Now?" Clare says. "Now we fight. And we die with honor."

Helen rolls her eyes. "Look kid, I have no intention of dying."

"I know. Our chances are nonetheless... slim..."

Helen hears a crack and Clare is on her knees clutching her ribs.

"Rrrraaaa!" one of the yoma screams and leaps into the air lunging at them.

"Shit!" curses Helen standing between the creature and Clare without conscious thought. She swings her blade drawing blood, hearing the thunk of flesh and bone. Damn you, kid, she thinks. Damn you for getting me into this position!

Scene III

Clare

She'd felt it when she'd stuck her hand into the first yoma's head and started drawing its blood and other soft tissues, felt its bones begin to liquidize as its soft flesh did. And felt her body suddenly drawing back and pulling at itself. She'd thought it might be just her body's need for more food, but the pain had wracked her more violently with the second yoma. And now...

Now... when she needed to fight a horde of these things, her body had suddenly given in to an intense pain, every cell in her being screaming. And the monsters sensed this weakness, and attacked.

Helen had jumped in. Recklessly, without abandon. She'd slashed the monster, but she's having trouble keeping the thing back and two more are charging from behind the first.

Her bones are cracking, muscles pulling. It hurts to move! Hell! What is happening to her? She...

Another yoma appears to her right. She can barely move, her body... it won't respond. Damn it, she thinks. Is this the limit of my training?

The monster pulls it arm back and roars.

"Clare!" Helen yells, and is slashed across the back. She falls to the floor, three long gashes going down her body. "Damn it," she whispers.

A monster grabs Helen's left leg and jerks her back, the monster to Clare's right coming down upon her.

"Damn. Why am I so weak?" she whispers.

The monster pulling Helen suddenly falls away with a missing arm and the one before Clare is suddenly split in half. She looks through the spray of blood seeing the elf with her bright eyes.

"My. My. Looks like I'm going to win the bet, small fry."

"You?" she whispers in shock.

"Not much of a bet if you die on me already, is there? Watch your back."

She feels it, the presence behind her. Her form liquidizes leaving behind a husk and she moves behind the creature, her body adjusting for the energy need. The creature slashes the ice sculpture, shattering its form and finds Clare's blade coming down its spine.

"That's better," says Ophelia. "So what the hell is wrong with you? You're not awakening already?" she asks with glee.

"No," says Clare, feeling sweat bead at her brow. "At least I don't think so."

"Thanks," says Helen to Ophelia. "I owe you."

Ophelia swings her blade just above Helen's head. A monster gurgles, its head suddenly coming off.

"Yeah. Yeah. That's two you owe me now."

The veins become stressed around Ophelia's eyes, her body drawing more energy. Her eyes go a bright amber, looking large and frightening. She smiles with a grin that nearly splits her face.

"This is so exciting! Already being able to take out all this trash! Haha! Let's enjoy ourselves!"

"You're a freak," says Helen, standing on wobbly hands and legs, blood seeping down her legs. "But looks like I've got no choice either."

Helen's own veins stretch, her eyes yellowing and her arm suddenly jerks forward, blade ripping across the necks and faces of several yoma. Not killing, for the most part, but wounding several, dropping a few. And Clare notes the wounds on her back are shutting, slowly, but shutting. That's good to know.

"Not bad Stretch," says Ophelia. "But it doesn't count if you don't drop em." And Ophelia rushes in towards the wounded yoma, slashing and hacking her way through.

"She is a tenacious one, it seems," says Clare through gasp.

"Are you okay?" ask Helen. "You look deathly pale, as if you've been out in the cold too long."

Clare looks down at her hand, can actually see her flesh and bone pulling and pushing upwards, lengthening. The whole of her arm, but it is slowing.

"Yeah, I think so," she says. A year of training and her body would compensate for that time, isn't that what Kaede had warned? That it would be painful? So this is what it is then?

The pain is lessening and she can see and feel the movement in each of the yoma. Sense what they are going to do and feel the ones still hiding. It is time to prove herself then.

"I'm ready," she whispers and grips her blade before her. Now is the time to act. And she charges into the fray of battle.


	9. Blade of the Betrayer

BLADE OF THE BETRAYER

Scene I

Anna

The yoma splits apart easily under her blade. It stares with wide eyes at Anna and shuts its eyes, its torso splitting from its lower body. Where is she? thinks Anna as she dodges around two more yoma slashing at her backside. She turns and slashes both across the necks, a spray of blood meeting her as reward. She turns towards the west where she can feel the yoki of the other woman and... the other two?

Her eyes narrow. Hadn't she just sensed that the two were going to die? That woman. So she'll have to die too. Damn! And she'd hoped to perhaps avoid actually killing the two women herself, now she'd have to kill the third as well.

She feels the yoki just behind her and moves to her left, easily avoiding the monster's swipe. It grunts in surprise. In a flash of motion she severs its head, the corpse falling to her side, its head toppling over the building's edge.

She huffs softly and leaps forward, leaping from building to building. Damn it! Now all the work will fall on her shoulders. But she can't... she can't fail Alicia and Beth. They need the freedom to be human. And for this the mutant and the others will fall.

Scene II

Helen

She swings her blade at the yoma's chest, imbedding her blade in its sternum, the body flung aside with the arc of her sword. It smashes against the side wall to her right, hurt, but not dead. It growls, spittle falling from its lips. Rage burns in its eyes. But it is looking past her towards Clare. And the answer is on its body, or what is left.

Where its right arm should be is a frozen stump where no yoki energy can flow. Incredible, she thinks. That blade of hers can stop the flow of yoki! Hehe. We won't have to worry about them healing now, will..

"Helen! Duck!" screams Clare.

Helen dodges immediately, Clare's sword blade swinging above her, a fiery gash of blue energy slashing the air, tearing through flesh with a sickening crunch as ice instantly forms where the blade bisects meat.

The yoma above her stares with blinking eyes from its odd angle where blade cut sternum and froze it as flesh began to split. Helen swings her blade upwards through its stomach up through its neck and skull, splitting the body open. The ice is definitely an odd feature of Clare's. Course it isn't any odder then what has actually happened to the girl in the last few minutes.

Clare's hair has gone silver, like any claymore's. It would seem almost a delayed growth. But where her eyes were silver they are now a frosty blue, and her sword glows with the same aura, the trainee's suit seeming to strain at her body. Did she seem taller...?

Clare grips Helen's shoulder, pulling her down as a yoma brushes the air where her head had been only moments ago. Clare swings up from Helen's shoulders, kicking the yoma in the face with both feet, crushing the bridge of its nose. With her feet landing she quickly slashes at its throat. It falls away clutching at the wounded organ, gurgling a death cry. Great. One more down, but ten more seeming to replace it.

"There's no end to them!" says Helen. Her own wounds burn across her back, wanting to split open again. Crap! she thinks. I won't last like this.

"I know," says Clare. "This was a set up by the organization to try and get rid of us."

The third woman, the elf with a pony tail, Ophelia is it? moves up next to them.

"Yeah," she whispers. "Egotistical penguins in suits. When I get my hands on them..."

"You have to survive first," says Clare, blocking the attack of an incoming yoma. With the block she slashes effortlessly at the yoma's throat and leaps up, shoving her left hand deep into the wound, the appendage glowing a vibrant blue as blood is drained from the body. The yoma screeches, twisting back and forth as its body is sucked dry and finally topples to the floor.

"You sure you're not an awakened being?" says Ophelia with a look approaching a sneer.

"Positive," says Clare.

"Hmph," the woman mutters and turns back to swinging at the yoma. "Could'a fooled me."

"Maybe that's all it is," says Clare, swinging her blade upwards at an angle across a yoma's flank. The ice freezes the wound in a sickly position leaving a staggering yoma in its wake. Ophelia takes the advantage and splits its torso away from its lower half.

"Still a good work out," she says. "How you hanging stretch?" Ophelia asks.

Helen swings her blade at a yoma who pushes the blade down. Damn! Getting weaker! No! Not gonna die here! And she pushes back against it, hacking away at its hands.

"Just fine! Not gonna fall behind you two!"

"Heh," smirks Ophelia and charges away at a massing group of yoma.

"Clare," she says. "I can't handle this much more. What are we going to do?"

"Just hang on. This can't last much longer."

"I.."

She turns seeing a claymore at the roof's edge. The woman with short hair. Their fourth partner. "Well look at who decided to show up," she huffs.

Clare turns momentarily, regarding the new comer. The woman flinches and leaps down with blade pointed downwards, right towards Clare. Oh no!

"Clare!" Helen yells, pushing her out of the way. The last thing she sees is the girl's blue eyes go wide before she feels her own skull cave from the injury.

Scene III

Clare

Clare watches horrified as the woman's blade crunches bone and runs through Helen's skull, taking her life.

"W-why?" she ask quietly.

The woman stands, withdrawing the blade with a shunkt and effortlessly blocks a yoma's incoming attack.

"Because you are a nuisance to the organization. And because my sisters need a chance to live as humans."

"So did Helen!" Clare cries back.

"Whatever, you're about to... Huk."

The woman's blade clashes with Ophelia's who has run back towards them slashing down with her blade. Ophelia pushes the woman back, making her slide across the floor and slashes at the two yoma coming behind her.

"What are you doing?" says the woman. "I was going to let you live!"

"You lie like a horses' ass," says Ophelia, and slashes another yoma across the throat. "Besides..." she says. "I knew one of you was an awakened being. That old guy Rubel said so. I now I see who it was all along!"

"I'm not..." the woman yells, but Ophelia leaps at her, slamming the blade down against the woman's own, crunching stone and debris.

"Like I'm gonna' believe that," says Ophelia. "Only awakened beings attack their own." She slashes again, pushing the woman back out of the gate. The woman growls, and charges Ophelia just as a yoma reaches up behind her.

"Ophelia!" Clare screams, and throws her sword at a yoma slamming the beast into the stone wall, blade slowly freezing the creature struggling with her blade.

"Thanks," says Ophelia as she blocks an incoming attack from the woman, knocking the blade down. The woman looks briefly towards Clare. That woman, the killing intent in her eyes. She intends to kill them all.

Clare lets out a scream, her energies crying with her own and charges the woman, slamming her elbow into the woman's neck, the blow resounding with a crack. The woman is thrown back, but she struggles slowly to her feet.

"Ophelia," Clare says. "Handle the yoma around us. I'll handle the woman before us."

"But you don't even have a sword."

"Just do it!"

"Alright, it's your funeral."

The woman looks at her, eyes narrowed into thin slits glowing an intense amber. She wipes the blood from her lower lip, simply staring.

"You really are a monster," she hisses. With these words she leaps into the air with blade raised above her head. Clare jerks her hands back into claw shaped forms at her side, the energy quickly gathering in a spiral at their center. The woman's eyes widen momentarily and Clare thrusts her hands forward releasing the ball of energy. Unable to move aside in the air with the blade at her back the ball of energy hits her squarely in the chest, ice enveloping her form in seconds.

Clare steps aside and the woman crashes to the floor, her body exploding in a shower of glass. Ophelia stops fighting, watching as a piece of the woman's face lands next to her feet.

"What the hell?"

Clare turns her head slowly, her neck crackling with the energy gathering within her. The yoma all hesitate, looking at her with fear. Clare turns her hands into their claw shape gathering energy into their center.

A yoma growls, swinging its head left and right and charges. Clare releases her energy, shooting the creature squarely in its center and goes from left to right, freezing the remaining yoma. Those who leap aside, dodging the attack meet with Ophelia's blade. It takes mere moments but when it is over Clare topples to the floor, out of breath. Out of energy.

Ophelia stands over, regarding her with dark eyes. The killing intent is well marked in this woman, and with the loss of energy Clare can barely turn her head.

"I could kill you now," says Ophelia.

Clare just stares silently.

The elf shrugs and just like that the killing intent is gone.

"But whatever. Why the hell do I want to give those old goats any kind of favor? Here." And she extends her hand towards Clare.

Clare closes her eyes and grips the woman's hand. Ophelia pulls her up, leaning close with her bright eyes.

"If I ever do find you're an awakened being, I will kill you."

"I know," Clare says flatly. "I wouldn't expect anything less. I wouldn't want anything less."

Ophelia is silent for a time, then smiles.

"You know what, I think I like you ... Clare was it?"

"Yes," Clare says. "Ophelia right?"

"Uh-huh," says Ophelia, nodding her head enthusiastically.

"You realize we can't tell anyone what happened here."

Ophelia's gaze sours. "Duh. I'm not stupid. What you think they'll do to us if we say we killed a claymore?"

Clare shuts her eyes.

"There isn't any real evidence. The woman helped destroy that herself when she leapt at me. She shattered into several hundred pieces."

"Almost," says Ophelia, dragging Clare over to a larger chunk. There an eye looks back up at them, filled with shock and fear. The elf raises her boot over the eye and stomps down on it, grinding the ice under the sole of her boot. She kicks away at the ice, scattering the tiny fragments further. "Now, there's no evidence." She says this with a shine to her amber eyes.

Clare nods. There is a darkness in the woman, but it does not matter. There is darkness in her as well. Darkness...

"Will you take me to Helen's body?"

"Stretch? Sure I guess."

Clare kneels down, taking her friend's blade. She strokes the cool fingers, feeling a tear trickle down her cheek.

"I knew her for only a little while, but she saved my life. I'm sorry Helen," she says, stroking the dead woman's sticky hair. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you."

She stands shakily, holding Helen's blade.

"Let's go then."

But she stands still, barely able to stand. Ophelia crosses her arms.

"Let me guess, you need my help, don't you?"

Clare nods.

"You're such a pain in the ass."

Clare is silent, not saying anything as her friend her out of this nightmare and she leaves another behind.

Scene IV

Rubel


	10. Epilogue Death of Orsay

Epilogue - Death of Orsay

Scene I

Rubel

The lighting in the dim halls does little to illuminate the features of the old men. They stare from the depths of the darkness with the candles barely showing any hint of the features beneath.

"So what have you decided, my fine, old men?" ask Rubel with a tip of his hat.

The men are silent for a time, hands clasped together. Finally one lays his hands flat and leans back.

"It would seem the experiment with the new child is a mixed blessing. She shows great potential, but there is a rebellious streak to her... something wild and unchallenged. Rubel. What is it that you know of the two deaths of the other trainees?"

Rubel tips his glasses, smiling.

"Ophelia claims to not have been in that particular area at the time of their deaths and Clare claims a yoma stole her partner's sword and impaled her with it. Ophelia showed just after the trainee's death. And as for Anna? Not a word. No one saw her one way or another. And with only Ophelia and Clare to corroborate the story we can't find anything more."

The man clasps his hands. Rubel smiles silently. He knows the girls are lying. Anna probably killed the trainee, but to admit that would mean to admit to killing another claymore, and there is no body, no sword. Nothing. The evidence is circumstantial of course, but the old men seem uncertain what to do.

"Very well. Keep a watch on these two Rubel. We will put them under your charge. Be wary. They seem wild, but have great potential."

"Of course," he says and turns away, his shoulders slouching. And he can end up dead too if he's not careful. If these two claymore are hiding one murder they are very likely to commit others. He smiles at this thought.

Commit others? How dreadful. They can throw the organization into disarray with the council wanting so much to hold Clare's power. And until they can find another with powers like hers she has near free reign. No, things are going to become difficult now, but infinitely more interesting.

Scene II

Orsay

Orsay walks with a hunch, leaning on his cane. That girl, Clare. She'd left him with a dreadful scar that still burns against his leg. For this injury he's been regulated solely to watch trainees. He looks around at the dread forest, with its imposing trees. Dreadful things they are. Always able to hide...

From behind a tall oak steps out a claymore with elfish ears and a long ponytail. She turns to him and smiles.

"Hello!"

An enemy he thinks. These trees hide the most horrible of things.

"What is it you want?" he growls. "Don't you have business to attend to? Away with you!"

"Ah, you're so cold old man. But then..." she licks her lips. "You're about to get a lot colder."

His eyes go wide, his limbs shaking. He narrows his vision, holding firm to his staff.

"You wouldn't dare. Killing humans is forbidden. Besides, where would you hide the evidence?" He chuckles softly, turning away from her. "No, no, dear. Should you try anything you'll be beheaded. In fact, for even implying it you should get a good lashing. Yes, that should be most... amusing."

"Laugh it up chuckles," she says. "It's the last thing you'll do."

His laughter stops, his demeanor growing serious, heart racing within him.

"So you do intend to kill me?"

"Yes. But I'm not the one who's going to be doing the killing. Someone else wants that pleasure for herself."

"What?" And it dawns on him. This one is constantly under the companionship of another, and his leg screams in memory of it. "No. You wouldn't dare, girl," he hisses. "You'll sign your own death that way."

"I told you your time would come, old man," says a feminine voice from behind him. "Now is your time."

"Y-you wouldn't dare," he says, trying to stall for time. In a moment Galatea or Rafaela should be near. Hopefully. "You'll die. You'll die just like..."

He feels cold fingers wrap around his throat, slamming him against the rough bark of the oak.

"You mean like Teresa or Kaede?" she whispers with a steely gaze. "Or like Helen that you sent to her death to try and kill me at Anna's hand?"

"Y-you..." he stutters.

"Don't," she says. "Don't say a word. Just freeze cold like my heart where you took something away from me."

He sees Ophelia at the corner of his eye, simply standing there, picking at her nails.

"St-stop her!" he says. "You must! I command you!"

"Whatever, old man," she says. "It was nice knowing you. Buh-bye!" she says with a grin splitting her face, her eyes shining brightly and she waves with her right hand. A mockery of a farewell.

"Goodbye," Clare says coldly.

"N-no.." he starts, but the ice locks up his throat, his limbs going numb, crackling. His skin hardens, his whole body going stiff, burning from the inside. He stares into Clare's cold eyes before his vision fades completely, the pain burning away his flesh.

Scene III

Ophelia

She watches the old man go cold, his body turning into an oversized ice cube. She scratches at something in her teeth, picking out a bit of yoma meat. She looks at the morsel on her fingers. It's kind of odd tasting. She'd never have tried the damned stuff if not for Clare. Well... it is a new flavor, and besides, no one is going to say no to her eating some yoma.

She hears a crash and looks towards Clare. The old man's body has dropped to floor, hollowed flaking pieces of glass blowing in the wind.

"Huh. How does human taste?" she asks.

"What?" ask Clare. "I didn't..."

"Sure you did. I know what you do when they go hollow like that. You ate his insides, or next to it. How does it taste?"

Clare looks up towards the sky, blinking her eyes.

"It taste like nothing. It's just water, it's all just... water."

"Huh," says Ophelia, stretching her arms and yawning. "Well, whatever," she says while scratching beneath an arm. It really is nice to be around Clare, if for nothing more then the cool aura she gives off cooling the air around her. On hot days like this, it's wonderful.

She watches the ice blowing with the wind. No. That's what makes Clare great. She's willing to kill people in her way and doesn't give two shits about it.

"So what now, frost eyes?" she ask.

Clare looks towards her, her eyes hollow.

"Nothing for now."

Opehlia pushes herself off the tree.

"Hey! When are we going to off that guy with the shades? You know.. the other one who tried to off us?"

"Rubel?" she ask, turning towards the sky. "Don't worry. His time will come. All of them will die, and then we can focus on the bitch."

The bitch. The term both had lovingly dubbed for the one horned awakened being they hated. Ophelia walks up to Clare, swinging an arm around her shoulder.

"Yeah, and you'd better not leave me out of it when you go after her. You hear me?"

Clare nods, with a slight smile.

"Yes. We'll do it togther."

"Haha. Sure will Clare. Sure will."


End file.
